He’s Baaaaaaack!

So glad to see John Barry back in print in the City Paper (“Working the Off-Season,” Stage, 8/1/2012)! He is an insightful, witty, fair writer with integrity and I‘ve missed his reviews and articles.

Mark Scharf

Gaithersburg, MD

the “Black and white” card

In response to Larnell Custis Butler’s insane and immature comments (“Bigotry in the Art World,” Letters, 7/25/2012): Come on, Larnell and everyone else out there still playin’ the “Black and White” card! You’re 71 years old! Do your art work, write your poetry and whatever else makes you happy and stop focusing on a society that will NEVER EVER change! And really, Larnell, do you think that you are any better than the “white people” you’re condemning?

Jay Bond

Baltimore

Peacenik Wars Go On

My response to David Eberhardt (“Marxism vs. Pacificism,” The Mail, 8/1/2012): Action through ANSWER is a waste of time. A bunch of peace-niks making noise, doing nothing but deluding themselves. I seriously wonder if ANSWER was organized as a clandestine plot to funnel dissent into useless venting. In all its noise and protestations, I sense a lack of depth present in genuine movements of change.

As for the debate between the pacifist and the socialist, Max Obuszewski failed to answer Alan Barysh’s criticism effectively. He mistook a corollary used by Barysh to underline his main argument - that America’s orientation towards war was a systematic problem - and treated as the crux of his criticism. In short, Barysh was saying that the monetary cost of American wars was NOT a limiting factor in their execution, but Obuszewski responded as if he had argued otherwise.

John G. Bailey

Edgemere

Correction: Last week’s “Every Day I’m Hustlin’” (8/1/2012) gave the incorrect impression that the subject, Michael, owned Headhunter African Jewels II, a kiosk on West Preston St. It is actually owned by Stephanie Hunter, who also has two other locations, at 230 Park Avenue and 501 Pennsylvania Ave. The piece also misstated how much the kiosk can earn on a good day, which is not $1,000, but $200 to $300.

“Mike,” 8/2/12