THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 31, 1996 TAG: 9603300018
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: LYNN FEIGENBAUM
LENGTH: Long : 103 lines
``What signal do promoters of Beach concerts send?''
That was the headline on Charlise Lyles' March 21 column - and it had a couple of dozen readers asking: What kind of signal does this column send?
Readers' calls, letters and e-mail messages were particularly lengthy on the issue but their bottom line was crystal clear. They found the column racially divisive, provocative - ``stirring up problems,'' as one put it.
Lyles was questioning the all-white lineup announced by the Virginia Beach Amphitheater for its May grand opening. She went on to say that ``conspicuously absent from the lineup so far are black performers - or for that matter, any Latins, Filipinos, or cross-over artists.''
Time out here to say something about columns. They are the opinions of one person, the writer. They can be sentimental, chatty, pontificating, outspoken, outrageous, sad, angry.
Many folks love to read about Guy Friddell's Labrador retriever, his birds and flowers, his grits and grittiness. But they whoop and holler all the same when he puts on his political hat and takes a shot at the Republicans.
They've hollered about Lyles, too, on more than one occasion but this time the reaction was hotter than usual, and most of it focused on one point: ``The concert lineup,'' she wrote, ``evokes the Greekfest fiasco'' - the riot of 1989.
That touched a very sensitive chord in Beach history, rather glibly. I've reread articles from that period, and the causes of the outbreak were long and involved. Plus Lyles herself points out that promoters are still working on the amphitheater lineup.
Nelson Brown, deputy managing editor for news presentation, thought that bringing up Greekfest clouded Lyles' message.
He asked: ``Was it fair to tie the Greekfest riots, which tore apart the city, to the concern about the racial makeup of scheduled acts at the amphitheater?''
The reference, he concluded, should have been omitted.
As I see it, Lyles - as a columnist - has a right to bring up the all-white musical bookings. That was the first thing I noticed myself when I saw the amphitheater announcement.
The role of the press is to ask tough questions. Hopefully, they make us think, even as we're getting riled up.
But having lived here through that troubling time, I don't like to see the paper accused of starting trouble. The press was under that cloud back in 1989, and that's one signal we don't want to send again.
TWO MORE HEROES. The story on Monday's front page was a moving, and apt, tribute to two local notables - Evelyn Butts and Joseph A. Jordan. A celebration Sunday honored their efforts to get Virginia's poll tax lifted 30 years ago, thereby opening the state's voting booths.
But for Lynnette Regan of Virginia Beach, the story had a gap. Why was there no mention of her father, William L. Shepheard? The Norfolk businessman first challenged the constitutionality of the poll tax in 1965, along with his attorney, then state Sen. Henry E. Howell Jr.
What was the difference in the two efforts? The 1963 challenge by Butts and Jordan ended up in the U.S. Supreme Court. ``Ours was just a footnote,'' was the modest assessment by Howell, who still goes to his law office every day.
Of one thing there is no doubt: Many people - Butts and Jordan, Shepheard and Howell among them - deserve credit for fighting a tax which, as Monday's story noted, ``resulted in keeping mostly poor blacks and whites from voting.''
SPACED OUT. It was one small step back for man, one giant leap back for womankind.
On Tuesday, The Pilot carried a four-paragraph story, datelined Houston and written by The Associated Press, that said:
``Working like skycaps high above Earth, astronauts and cosmonauts lugged 12-gallon sacks of water and other supplies Monday from space shuttle Atlantis to Russia's Mir station.''
The story added that ``American Shannon Lucid was excused from most of the heavy lifting.''
Dr. Leonard Scarr took time out from his Portsmouth veterinary practice to call in. Lugging water? Heavy lifting? Nonsense, he said, it's zero gravity out there!
Richard Perkins, a Navy submariner living in Virginia Beach, made the same point and was offended by the sexist bias of the story - which, by the way, was written by a woman.
``Ms. Lucid went through an extremely fine filter to get to her challenging position as an American astronaut,'' he reminded us.
Well, ``heavy lifting'' was a flight of fancy in that weightless environment. What was involved, said Pam Alloway, a spokesperson for NASA in Houston, was maneuvering bulky storage containers through the docking tunnel. A clumsy process, perhaps, but certainly not back-breaking in space.
As for astronaut Lucid, she added, the Mir newcomer was busy getting oriented and was simply not needed for the move.
SOMETHING TO BEEF ABOUT. Hilary McGovern of Norfolk had a cow when she saw the teaser photo atop Thursday's front page - the one showing a cow and referring to the ``Brit beef ban'' on an inside page.
McGovern, who has lived in Scotland and whose husband is from there, said we got our cattle confused.
``That is a picture of a Scottish Highland cow,'' she said, ``and it is not representative of the British beef that has been banned.''
The ban, of course, refers to the current scare over ``mad cow disease'' and its impact on beef products in Great Britain
McGovern said that Scottish Highland cattle is mostly raised for display and show purposes. In other words, it's a tourist prop, not a future hamburger.
by CNB