Jan. 30 – I have to express my deep dismay at the recent decision by the rock group Guns ‘N Roses to release a song written by Charles Manson (“Look at Your Game, Girl” on “The Spaghetti Incident.”) While, to a younger generation who was not alive at the time, Charles Manson must seem like a cartoon character, I can assure you (and them) from firsthand experience that his depravity and depth of cruelty make him a truly base human being, deserving no one’s attention, let alone admiration.

I cannot understand what, aside from misguided rebellion, drove Guns ‘N Roses to make such a deplorable decision, but I truly did not expect Geffen Records to defend this decision by refusing to pull the song from the album. How can Geffen Records condone this other than by profits?

Though Geffen Records has reportedly agreed to give a portion of the proceeds to the families of the victims, this can hardly outweigh the incredible injustice and injury they have dealt to these very people by forgetting the pain and suffering of those who were senselessly murdered. How could anyone endorse this profiting on the infamy of such a hideous criminal? Certainly, the song itself deserves no such credit.

As if this isn’t deplorable enough, the videos currently being shown from this album show the singer prancing around stage, proudly displaying a T-shirt with Charles Manson’s picture on it. Geffen’s petty offering to the victims of Manson’s butchery begins to look like a hollow, insincere farce. How many millions of dollars is Geffen going to make off this?

Though rock ‘n’ roll is an art form that sometimes survives only by virtue of its rebelliousness, to make a novelty out of a person like Charles Manson, whose self-serving wickedness (I can attest) is beyond any of your comprehension, is truly unconscionable.

There are still people in this world whose lives and talents are worthy of such attention. Why waste time on him?

SUSAN ATKINS
JAN. 28