The rumor that won't go away
BY DAVE CULLEN
(04/24/99)

While no one can justify and certainly cannot condone the actions of the boys in Colorado this week, there are certainly mitigating circumstances which deserve our undivided and deep attention. As the mother of a young man who was deemed "different" all the way through middle and high school, I am outraged at the knee-jerk reactions of the media and professional pundits calling for less freedom, more "tracking" of people who exhibit "antisocial" behaviors. The problem does not lie with individual students who don't follow the herd either socially or philosophically. It lies with the level of disrespect for and lack of civility to anyone who is different from "us" that is so pervasive in our society. The level of emotional violence and physical harassment directed at so-called outsiders in "idyllic" small-town America is comparable to the gang-related physical threat we so deplore in our inner cities.

Churches, politicians, media celebrities and parents who teach and propound, either directly or indirectly, intolerance of anyone or any group who does not fit your particular vision of "the way it ought to be"; teachers and school administrators who turn a blind eye to (and students who feel somehow justified in) the literal, unrelenting torture of classmates who do not meet your religious or social standards must accept a part of the blame and the shame for these tragic occurrences. We all know who we are.

-- Victoria Glynn
Sumner, Wash.

I find it ironic in the extreme that the friends of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold hotly deny rumors that the two young killers might have been gay, that the rumor "defames" them.

These two young men cold-bloodedly murdered 13 people. It seems to me that calling them gay defames gay people, not themselves.

But that's high school -- being gay is considered worse than murdering your classmates and teachers.

-- Ali Rasley

I'm disturbed by Salon's continued "reporting" that the pair of Littleton murderers were gay, when there is no evidence whatsoever -- none -- that they were. This "reporting" all stems from the taunts that the two regularly received.

Perhaps no one at Salon ever went to high school, but nowadays, as has been the case for decades, hurling an anti-gay epithet at someone is simply the worst insult you can use. These boys were merely being insulted and goaded by their tormentors, not outed.

-- Eric Westby

After almost a week of nonstop coverage that quite frankly has begun to fray my nerves, Dave Cullen's terrific article made me remember how cruel the food chain can be in high school. Whether or not the two murderers were gay, goths, racists or just different is almost a moot issue. They were teenagers, for God's sake, obviously ridiculed and ostracized to the point where, tragically, they retaliated with violence. I guess some of our most prominent newspeople will never understand why something like this could happen because they never grasped the viral-like rage that can inhabit a person who is classified a freak in their youth. What happened was unforgivable and inexcusable, but so are the epithets that some teenagers have to endure. As adults, can we really just sit back and pretend that this kind of tragedy is such a mystery? Let the blame game continue, but unless everyone's willing to accept responsibility for what happened (because we are all capable of violence, whether we want to admit it or not), nothing will change.

-- S. Baber
Austin, Texas

The continuing saga of the beast with two soles
BY DOUGLAS CRUICKSHANK
(04/22/99)

The title chosen for Douglas Cruickshank's article on (among other things) Darryl Strawberry is quite disturbing. Why is it that black males who are found to have committed indiscretions are so often referred to as "beasts?" While it is unfortunate that Strawberry seems unable to restrain his wayward appetites, he has harmed no one but himself by his habits -- unlike, say, alleged wife-beater Tommy Lee or child-molester Roman Polanski, neither of whom I have ever seen any mainstream publications refer to as "beasts." Could it be that you see all black men as "beasts," liable to revert to their naturally wild states?

-- Abiola Lapite

DOUGLAS CRUICKSHANK RESPONDS...

The phrase "beast with two soles," as used in the title of the April 22 "Rogues' Gallery" column, is not a reference to Daryl Strawberry, who is a fine and talented fellow, his "wayward appetites" and the problems they're causing him notwithstanding. In fact, the title of the column is a joking allusion to Chuck Jones' amorous activities with Marla Maples' shoes -- hence "soles," not "souls." The "continuing saga" is the trial, which as of today (April 28) is still in progress.

Caveat poster
BY KAITLIN QUISTGAARD
(04/20/99)

While I respect the Internet community's desire to distribute information without fear of reprisal, I have some doubts as to how effective anonymity is when a poster is trying to blow the whistle on illegal or unethical practices. If a poster is truly motivated by a desire to correct an ethical or legal wrong, wouldn't a court of law or a regulatory agency be a more suitable vehicle for their grievances?

It seems strange that the Internet community demands due process in protecting their anonymity, yet uses anonymity to deprive others of the right to face their accuser. Simply because there's a risk of being litigated by some big, bad corporation doesn't exempt someone from being held responsible for what they say.

In cases where nothing illegal or unethical happened, and the poster is just talking shop, one must question the wisdom of blabbing secrets over a global public forum such as the Internet. The competition reads posts, too.

-- Ken Parmalee

Expatriates on Japan
BY DON GEORGE
(04/21/99)

I can't help but respond to the absurdity of T.R. Reid's statement that his intent was to comment on the Asian "social miracle." Of course it's true that East Asian countries have much lower crime rates, divorce rates, and numbers of single mothers. Is this attributable to some sort of superiority in the Asian way of life? Not at all -- the reason that countries such as Japan have these statistics is the homogeneity of their cultures. I was born and grew up in Sweden, and during my youth, statistics in the above categories were certainly comparable to Japan, or any other East Asian nation. But what happened? An influx of other cultures, particularly Turkish and Mediterranean, created new social spheres that threw the existing cultural balance out of whack. Of course a nation will have a high degree of morality when it's composed of one uniform group -- picture an America solely populated by devotees of the Christian Coalition. I am not trying to assail or deprecate the Asian way of life -- which has its own beauty and harmony and distinction - but merely to point out that if Japan, for instance, were subject to the same shifting social dynamics of the United States (i.e., its high influx of immigrants), its laudable numbers would suffer noticeably.

Personally, I believe that, barring some sort of worldwide disaster, the global trend of unification and diversification is inevitable; and America, having long struggled through the difficulties of integrating radically opposed cultural norms, will again be a step ahead of those countries encountering these troubles for the first time.

-- James Park

Having worked in Japan for nearly two years, I believe that what makes it into print about that strange country is only now -- after the end of the bubble economy that dazzled everyone -- beginning to reflect reality. While many of today's economic and political analyses are perhaps too negative and pessimistic, they are a necessary corrective to the romanticized veneer of naive observers and the awe we felt at its 40-year economic miracle. Japanese society is essentially feudal, brutally authoritarian and xenophobic. A large part of Japan's current problems cannot be solved because the old elites -- politicians, bureaucrats and business -- want to keep the system running in their favor. It is an old and uninteresting story of stagnation and decline.

I suppose it was inevitable that T.R. Reid would write a book on Japan. I didn't read it, but his little observations on NPR were superficial, misleading and silly. Listening to his frivolous tales, I often wondered if we had lived in the same country. Most Japan hands I knew despised the things he said. It was as if he remained stuck in the early infatuation that many of us felt there before we got to know the place. Reid's problem was a common one: He never understood the difference between tatemae -- the superficial cultural facade of "harmony" that the Japanese routinely paint on their society -- and honne, the dirtier truth you get while drinking in bars with friends and colleagues. That a respected journalist never seemed to probe the depths of the country he was paid to explore is beyond belief and mediocrity. Readers will, I believe, get only a syrupy, semi-official version of Japan from his book.

As George wrote, many foreigners are really down on Japan - they feel alienated, they find its society sterile and cruel, they complain that appearances are far more important than reality. The one truth I learned there is that Japan is as ugly as it comes to appear to most long-term residents. For every tatemae claim -- such as that divorce rates are low in Japan -- there is an uglier, truer explanation underneath: Women don't leave bad marriages because they would lose their place in an unforgiving society. But that's not very fun to read (or write) about.

-- Robert Crawford
Recloses, France

Dying to ride
BY ANDREW TABER
(04/21/99)
Please allow me to correct you on a few things in your article:

You write: "Ever since 1967, when an amphetamine-pumped Tom Simpson collapsed and died at the Tour de France, the sport has been doping itself to the gills."

Wrong. Doping was around long before Simpson. You only have to go back one year to 1966 when Jacques Anquetil led a strike during the Tour de France. Anquetil was openly for doping and vigorously fought against doping controls.

You write: "In 1991 the entire Dutch PDM team withdrew from the Tour de France, ostensibly suffering the effects of over-doped blood."

Wrong. This has never been proven and the UCI cleared the PDM organization.

You write: "Cycling's drug infestation was long assumed to have stopped with the non-champions."

Huh? Read the above about Anquetil. Or read up on Roger Riviere, two-time world hour record holder. Or any number of cyclists in the '60s, '50s and earlier.

Your research into the history of the problem stops with Simpson. You forget that by his time, cycling had been a major, organized sport for over 50 years.

-- Chris Lowe

Is cycling the only pro sport rife with cheating or substance abuse problems? How about Major League Baseball, where the home run king admits to using a substance banned by virtually every other sport's governing body?

You don't mention that the international cycling union had implemented blood tests to regulate the hematocrit levels of professional cyclists (prior to the '98 Tour de France fiasco) as a health risk, since actual EPO use is currently undetectable. You don't mention that the level allowed is lower than what's allowed by the cross-country ski federation. You don't mention that at the time of Tom Simpson's death in 1967, random urine testing was already being conducted in most major events.

Does pro cycling have a drug problem? Certainly, as do many pro sports. The cycling community, riders, officials, sponsors and fans have a duty to do everything they can to attempt to eliminate all forms of cheating in races. Your article, for some reason, just makes it seem like nobody cares and nothing is being done.

-- Larry Theobald
Sioux City, Iowa