City to help Hawks; why not ASO, too?
Mayor Kasim Reed is offering to support the Hawks with public funds to keep them in Atlanta. I wonder if he, or anyone else, would be willing to do the same for our world-class Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. The $2 million deficiency this year of our orchestra, which after all is a nonprofit, is a drop in the bucket compared to the millions spent on sports salaries and stadiums. It is just unfortunate that Georgia is at the bottom of the states in arts funding.
The very shabby treatment of our city's wonderful musicians is a scar on our city's music scene. Everything has been cut: salaries, which are already modest; benefits; length of season; the number of musicians in the orchestra. The only thing that hasn't been cut is ASO President Stanley E. Romanstein's generous salary. And now he wants to be the one to determine how the vacancies are filled? Maybe he is the one who needs to be locked out, since he has obviously not been effective in finding creative solutions, and has alienated musicians and the community.
JOYCE VROON, ATLANTA
Is filling out forms asking too much?
In the column by Andrew Feiler, “Voters can face sign-up obstacles” (Opinion, Sept. 26), he lists several voter registration rules that he characterizes as “immoral, unethical, and anti-democratic.” Mind you, the rules he refers to are instructions on filling out the voter registration form — things such as putting your address on the correct line, entering the last four digits of your Social Security number in the correct blocks, entering your birth date as explained on the form. All very challenging tasks. Really? I believe that if a verified citizen cannot follow the simple instructions for filling out the registration card, do we really want them attempting to vote? Why, by mistake, they just might vote for a (gasp) Republican!
FRED COLLINS, MCDONOUGH
Football violence starting to hit home
Let me get this straight: We pay these young brothers millions to entertain us with violence, and then get indignant when some ugly spills into our living room. We end careers that took years of work to create, without prejudice, to primarily protect revenue. Just Win Baby! And Ray Rice, Mike Vick and even Bobby Petrino need help? Right. The back of every NFL ticket should be a mirror. I mean, let’s keep it real.
MARC SIZEMORE, CHARLOTTE, N.C.
Too many bucks for the ‘Big Bang’
As if being a public servant wasn’t demanding enough these days, the main actors on “The Big Bang Theory” have just completed salary negotiations for the coming season. They will be making from $700,000 to $1 million each per 30-minute episode. That’s significantly more in one hour than most teachers, firemen, or policemen make in a lifetime, and even more than any professional athlete I’ve heard of. I’m not sure I will be able to watch the show now without thinking I’m really seeing a bunch of obscenely overpaid multi-millionaires planning how they will spend all their money.
Sort of gives the term “big bang” a whole new — and depressing — meaning.
JOHN R. SIEGEL, ATLANTA
