Booze Trains Are Better Than Booze Cars
I read a City Weekly letter titled "Booze Train" [Aug. 28] that both angered and saddened me. The letter was written by a Mr. Douglas Cotant who was so offended by the "loud talking" of some mildly inebriated passengers that he threatened to write a letter to the governor asking that "UTA be shut down for allowing patrons who use alcoholic beverages to ride the trains."
Would you rather these intoxicated passengers have gotten behind the wheel of a car instead of making the responsible choice to take public transit, even at the risk of offending the delicate sensibilities of other passengers?
Mr. Cotant's attitude of ignorant intolerance permeates our local culture and is a constant, chafing source of irritation to those who choose to follow an individual moral code rather than the locally prescribed system of belief.
Anna Asay
Tooele
Get Outta My Train and Into Your Car
In the letter "Booze Train" [Aug. 28, City Weekly], Douglas Cotant of Salt Lake City complains that while riding a Utah Transit Authority train, some of his fellow passengers were loud and smelled of alcohol. He demands UTA either stop serving intoxicated passengers or be shut down.
I agree with Mr. Cotant. It is absolutely unacceptable that UTA allows people who have been drinking to ride public transit. Drunk people belong behind the wheels of cars, where they can fulfill their natural role of helping keep the population in check by running down children and the elderly. This helps our schools keep class sizes manageable. Drunk drivers also provide business for the mechanics who repair their vehicles.
Won't somebody other than Mr. Cotant think of the children, and how to reduce their numbers?
J'myle Koretz
Salt Lake City
Get Down
Excessive force by the police is not just an African American problem. It is an American problem that can affect anyone anywhere in the United States. Thinking "It cannot happen here, it cannot happen to me or to my kids because we live in Utah and I am white" is seriously flawed.
As the news was focused on the killing of an unarmed teen in Missouri, another unarmed young man was shot dead by police on Monday, Aug. 11, in Salt Lake City, in the parking lot of a 7-Eleven for the crime of attempting to pull up his pants.
I never thought I would need to have the talk with my children about, "When you go out, this is how you act in front of the police." Young men and women, regardless of race: Comply with the police. It is better to get on the ground and live to see another day than to die at the hands of a trigger-happy cop.
All of us need to be outraged at the brutal tactics of our police force, and use that outrage for positive change.
Lee Thatcher
West Jordan
Correction: The piece on Monophonics in Sept. 4's Music Live section misstated how many people are in the band and also incorrectly noted that their sound contains bongos. Monophonics has six members, none of whom plays a bongo.
Sept. 4's article "Kindly Light" should have noted that Emily Golightly contributed backing vocals to Caverns' "Cabin in the Woods."
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