Thursday, March 16, 2000
Mardi Gras: Everyone has an opinion
BY KAREN SAMPLES
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Readers are evenly split on whether Mardi Gras should return to Covington, judging from responses to last week's column.
People divided into two camps. Either they agreed with my suggestion to fix the festival and bring it back next year, or they thought I'd had one too many Mardi Gras beers.
I suggested MainStrasse residents could benefit from so many people seeing their neighborhood's charms. I interviewed a St. Louis resident whose community gets a big boost from its festival, even though it does get wild.
Some who weren't convinced:
“Being wild is one thing in a party, but when it affects me or someone's property, then the party is over!!!”
— Aaron Gibson
“Obviously, you did not see the interview on the evening news of a man who was pulled out of his car and beaten up by a couple of drunks.”
— Catherine Clay, Cincinnati
On the other side:
“Covington city officials definitely overreacted (by canceling the festival) without giving any consideration to the overall picture. The MainStrasse Village Association underreacted by not doing anything different on Saturday. ... I agree that we all need to get together and plan for the future — not quit!”
— Frank Jakubec, owner of Mulligan's, MainStrasse
“My children (ages 21, 26) were there, and they enjoyed it so much. Yes, there was flesh exposed, but the festival gives people something to do, it's exciting, it builds community. ... They did say it was a good crowd, much better than Oktoberfest. I hope we can keep it.”
— Mary Beth Pfeiffer, Villa Hills
And more ...
A Feb. 24 column on Edwin Kagin, the atheist running for Kentucky state Senate, drew mostly favorable mail from readers who liked his outspokenness.
Mr. Kagin, an attorney in Union, thinks the legislature is spending too much time trying to promote Christianity by law. I agreed with him but wished he weren't so outrageous in making his points.
“Pleasantly surprised to see a Cincinnati Enquirer columnist agreeing with an atheist — and a woman, too. Amazing!”
— Dave Bootes, Cincinnati
“I agree with Mr. Kagin that our country seems to be on a slippery slope towards legislated morality and state religion. I find it appalling that the Republican Party has allowed itself to be dictated to by the religious right. For a political party that advocates "less government,' they sure would like to legislate right into my private life.”
— Mary Fox, Cincinnati
“I am one of those atheists ... and unless we are rather obnoxiously apparent, no one will know we are here or that atheist people are OK without religion.”
— Inez Klein, College Hill
“Religion is something we are taught from birth to death. It touches many aspects of our lives. As secular humanists, we would like to have control over the way it touches our lives, because we figured out that we do not need it. If the government steps in and takes that control away from us, I'm afraid we might as well go back to the days of the Tea Party.”
— Lyse Hurd, Cox's Creek, Ky.
And on the other side, one person writes that the founding fathers were not against religion in general, but rather opposed to the establishment of any particular religion.
“In fact the founding fathers, who certainly better than us would know what they meant in this area, supported and even used tax money for various "religious' projects, schools, etc., even the buying of Bibles!”
— Don Landis
“Atheists talk a lot about how intolerant religious people are, but they mock them in ways that would be denounced by all if directed against other people. And whenever atheists have attained power, the results have been very bad in every case I can recall.”
— David Bump, Flushing, Mich.
Karen Samples is Kentucky columnist for the Enquirer. Her column appears Thursdays and Sundays. She can be reached at ksamples@enquirer.com
