Editor,
I have been seeing many letters complaining about different aspects of the war in Iraq. While I feel that this is a very important issue for everyone, I would like to shed some light on a problem that has been plaguing our country for some years now.
I am a true music lover and I feel that all music is beautiful in its own way. I listen to rap, rock, jazz, classical, R&B and damn near any other genre of music you could name. (I do listen to country but not very often because it makes me want to drink a beer and buy a Ford pickup.)
Since I am a huge music lover, I am growing sick and tired of Wal-Mart's moronic stance on the music that it will sell in its store. For those people out in the world who do not know its stance is, Wal-Mart will not sell any music that has one of those child-saving parental advisory stickers on them. I loath those damn stickers. They serve no real purpose other than to give withered old businessmen and their wives a way to censor music that doesn't sing about good old family values and apple pie.
Wal-Mart is the perfect way to prove this belief. I lived in the small town of Espanola, N.M., and one of the only ways to get music was to go to Wal-Mart. However, every time I would find Nas, Slipknot and other "unique" artists, the CD would come with a huge edited sticker on it. I would then think to myself, "I can buy 'Saving Private Ryan,' which shows more gore than a Texas slaughter house, but I can't buy a CD from Dr. Dre, because he says the M-word?" (Marijuana is the M-word, not that other one).
This can't be right, this must be a joke to make people laugh at how hypocritical it would be to not sell foul-mouthed singers but sell movies that have the same words and 50 times the blood, guts and gore.
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Sadly, my thought is that this is completely true. The high brass at Wal-Mart actually think that its idea of music censorship is saving our children from becoming, dare I say, corrupted by someone other than their parents.
Now some of you great humans out there may be asking, "But Matt, what can we do to solve this great injustice?" I have the perfect answer for you. I that say while you are throwing up dozens of posters for either pro-war, anti-war, or whatever side you are on, put up a sign asking Wal-Mart to join us in the 21st century and let the music be heard!
Matt Dondelinger
UNM student
