Susan Schwartz of the Cemala Foundation writes:
"Some say the choice of constructing a performing arts center must go to the voters. I say, why? Voters had the opportunity in two bond referendums to renovate War Memorial Auditorium. They chose not to and it is crumbling away."
Dear Ms Scwhwartz,
While I hate the thought of loosing a memorial to the brave men who fought and died for us, perhaps this should serve as a lesson to you and your kind. War Memorial Auditorium, like the rest of the Greensboro Coliseum Complex has been mismanaged since its opening in 1958 long before you set foot in Greensboro. The working class have had enough of throwing money in holes and you now have the audacity to suggest that we haven't the right to speak our minds and vote on the issue. Your solution to the problem of War Memorial Stadium is to build a downtown performing arts center to be managed in the exact same way and by the exact same staff as the auditorium you now blame the taxpayers for its demise? How dare you point fingers?
Coliseums, auditoriums and performing arts centers around the world can and do operate at a profit but as long as you, Mayor Perkins, Walker Sanders and the rest of the GPAC supporters continue to support a failed business model that has operated in the red every year for the last 54 years you cannot expect support from the community. The citizens of Greensboro, left, right and center, have had enough of your Fascist attempts to control our city.
You see, Ms Schwartz, while I realize it's completely over your self-absorbed head, our neighborhoods and our ability to eak out an honest living are far more important to the vast majority of Greensboro's working class that your monuments to your own kind will ever be. And if you continue to wage this class warfare on us we will raise the bar beyond the level you and your kind are willing to go. Remember: you drew first blood.
