Reggae: Past, Present and Future

Maybe it's just because I'm generally an optimist, but attending Coco's party at the Mateel Saturday almost had me convinced that there's a way out of this morass that does not include total annihilation.
Then I saw the letter below posted on Eric's blog, and the resulting barrage of comments. Last I checked it was up to 96, and it's less than 24 hours since the letter went up. I don't know Peter Ryce all that well, but I know that yesterday morning he was a beloved schoolmaster, and now what is he? A traitor who should be boycotted (how exactly I'm not sure) shunned, and perhaps drawn and quartered.
It's been suggested that he did not write the letter himself, than Yvonne wrote it (I asked her, she says she did not).
Someone else writes, "We will go to the planning commission and get them to sign off on the biggest drug restriction Reggae has ever seen. You assholes have no idea what you've gotten yourselves into..." which to me says, if things don't go our way, we'll do our best to destroy the festival.
I'm guessing that my weighing in just this much will result in people assuming that I've chosen sides in this battle, something I'm trying hard not to do.
Anyway, I'm reposting this notice because I'm not sure that everyone who reads this blog also reads SoHum Parlance. If you have thoughts on it, I'd just as soon you post them there.

The photo above shows the pizza bread booth at last year's Reggae. Peter is the guy on the right. It was used to illustrate a story I wrote for the Journal, "The Cuisine of Reggae." Read it and you might get a better idea about how Peter's statement came about.


Reggae Rising - on the River

Judge Watson came out with his ruling. He said that the MCC has no basis for a preliminary injunction on Peoples Production. Reggae Rising will go forward.

We believe this is truly the time for UNITY.

Peoples Production has been meeting regularly, on site, and with the coordinators and are able and ready to produce this year’s event. They have shown both the professional caliber necessary to produce the event along with a trained and experienced staff. Peoples has shown that they are fully capable of producing a large Reggae Festival. They have also shown that their support of the non-profits and our community center will be continued.
We support their production of this year’s event!

The MCC should drop any further attempt at litigation or court procedures against PP or Tom Dimmick over this year’s event. The time for fighting is over and we want to move on. The income we, the non profit organizations, receive from the event is, for many of us, our largest annual fund raiser. We cannot continue to do the good work we do without this event. The politics of these past months has been deplorable and we want no more of it. MCC is a community center not at Production Company. Yes, there are unresolved issues, but the current leadership has not been able to affect a timely or satisfactory resolution. This is not the time to sort out. There will be time after the event when they should sit at the table and speak until the air is clear. We do not want to see any more posturing or delaying tactics. This event is less then 100 days out and we need to focus on getting it together if we are to have a world class event in August 2007.

The vendors ask that Reggae Rising keep us apprised of the expected attendance and actual ticket sales on a regular basis so we can gauge our ordering and preparation for the actual event size. We further offer our assistance to help with the planning department or any other agency that wants to see we are united and ready to move on Reggae 2007.

We are saddened that the community has become so divided, distracted and disturb over our Unity Event. This is not how we want to do things or how we have practiced conflict resolution. Doing Reggae 2007 can be a break and a breather.
Take a deep breath, count to ten, do Reggae and then find a win/win solution.

Jah Love,

Peter Ryce for the non-profit vendors of Reggae Rising - on the River