Van Cliburn piano competition has decided to turn a blind eye to Russian realities

Van Cliburn doing the wrong thing

Appalled is too benign a term to express my dismay upon reading that the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition will allow 15 Russian pianists to audition for this year’s competition. (March 4, 12A, “Russian pianists allowed to compete in Van Cliburn International Piano Competition”) As the rest of the free world sacrifices to push back against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s bloody aggression, the Cliburn is callously embarrassing itself while staining Fort Worth with it.

Even Carnegie Hall and the New York Metropolitan Opera have taken stands of decency through influence they might wield in the arts. But not the Cliburn.

Never have classical music aficionados been so tone-deaf.

- Mark Lovvorn, Dallas

What the piano competition saw

As the world unites against a potential world war and the megalomaniac who is hellbent on causing it, the Cliburn competition must see something that the rest of us don’t.

Notwithstanding some lofty self-assessment of why classical music rises above war and why the rest of the world’s sacrifices aren’t nearly as important as the Cliburn, the decision to allow Russians to audition is self-serving and ignores the lives threatened in Ukraine.

The Star-Telegram has weighed in with an editorial in support of the Cliburn competition’s decision. (March 6, 4C, “Fort Worth’s Van Cliburn piano competition had to address Ukraine. Its leaders got it right”) Sports teams, businesses and countries are willing to sacrifice, but the Cliburn somehow is able to rise above the obvious and find the acorn the blind hog was looking for.

- Ken Davis, Weatherford

Don’t give in to greedy players

Here’s to the baseball owners standing firm. Players are hired hands, and greedy ones at that. They have no expenses to operate a ballclub or stadium or any responsibility, except for playing a game.

- Marshall Stewart, Fort Worth

Book banners are blocking choice

Why should a small group of parents get to decide for all parents what books are available in public school libraries? By forcing their choices on all children, they are banning some books of great literary merit. Limited-income households will not buy these books.

Children need to learn to read quality books that affirm the human worth of all children and that offer a bigger vision of the world than they may experience. The book banners can exercise parental authority over what their children read. Why are they seeking to make decisions for other parents?

- Loveta Eastes, Benbrook

NATO needs to be aggressive

The leaders of NATO cite Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s veiled threat of a nuclear war as grounds for saying no to a no-fly zone over Ukraine. Instead of stepping in to help a besieged world neighbor, we have chosen to stand on the sidelines and say to the Ukrainians, “You have our support.”

Yes, we have put some sanctions on Putin and Russia. But the time has come to stick it to Putin. Give air cover to Ukraine. Do we really believe that if we let Putin reduce Ukrainian cities to rubble, he will never again make a nuclear threat?

NATO leaders lack the one weapon that is natural to every great military leader: the killer instinct.

- Ronald W. Jaeger, Austin

This story was originally published March 10, 2022 at 5:00 AM.