FANZINE

If you live in NYC you’ve probably heard by now the ridiculous amount of coverage Melissa Petro has been getting in the news for being an “ex-sex worker posing as a NYC teacher.” This is so out of hand the way the tabloids (yeah, you NY Post, CBS News, and more) are blowing this up like it’s some kind of scandal. Melissa is a friend of a friend of ours at Fanzine, and at one point we were working on putting together a column together, and she’s never made any bones about her past, about which she frequently wrote and spoke. She wrote a piece for Huffington Post a few days ago and now the “news” sites are picking it up like they’ve uncovered Watergate, while uneducated parents who obviously have never done anything unconscionable in their past (to Melissa’s credit, she doesn’t find her past regrettable or unconscionable) have suddenly taken the high and mighty road of posting castigating anonymous comments on the Internet. Yeah, that’s the power of the Internet for you. She’s probably going to lose her job for this. Show some support for Melissa Petro and other sex workers (both former and present) who get persecuted by newspapers looking to sell a few more copies and self-righteous parents who let their kids stay up til 2am eating Ding-Dongs while posting bullshit on the Internet they know nothing about.

In other news people keep sending me links to the NY Times story about Newton Creek being declared a Superfund site. Well, duh. Everyone knew it was one of the most polluted waterways in the country long before the EPA declared it a Superfund site. The next time I catch a fish out of Newton Creek I’ll ask your advice, ok?

-mkl