Listeners' Comments

A recent KINK Considers took issue with the idea of a proposed publicly-funded charter high school where hip-hop would be the draw. Tony Simmons, the development director for the High School for Recording Arts writes that' "Our public school system needs more educational options for young people." The school, at 250 students, would be small and have a negligible cost but the fact is that without it, its targeted population might not graduate from school at all and might instead be truly dependent on the taxpayer.

Simmons writes that hip-hop is a mainstream music genre that includes a multitude of styles and ideas. There is an element that glorifies violence and misogyny, but it does not define hip-hop. To demonize hip hop and, thusly, our program is like demonizing maritime education simply because pirates are prominently covered in the mass news media.

About our commentary on Washington endorsing a gay rights measure but Maine knocking one down, listener Pat Costa writes that, "We seem to have, in this country, a driving need to hate something." Yet gays have always been a part of us and to know them is to know that they are no different from the rest of us. They remain persecuted after all groups have found acceptance, become the convenient bete noire for all to hate.

About our comments on the proposal to suspend the officers who killed James Chasse for just two weeks, listener Richard York writes, "I admire the police of Portland....My biggest concern is that all those good officers' reputations continue to be tainted by the acts of a few. Failing to hold any individual to account for his or her actions enables the continuation of that activity. Note that this week one of those officers was put on leave for shooting a bean bag gun at a 12 year old girl at close range when she resisted arrest.