Letters to the Editor
Published Letters: 283 Editor's Choice: 20
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Here, Read This.
[Read the article: How can I love my Republican parents?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]LW sounds like he needs to read a very good short story. It's called "Young Goodman Brown," and it's by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The story is about a young, religious man who accidentally discovers that most of the people around him in his town are members of a witchcraft cult. Goodman Brown is completely unable to cope with this knowledge, and ends up alienated from everyone he ever knew and loved.
The sense of the story is that Brown is more at fault that the cult worshipers. Hawthorne passes no judgment on the cult members. He does not say that they are good or bad, but concentrates on the point that Brown has to live with these people. Brown can either accept them as they are or live a life of alienation. Brown chooses alienation, and suffers greatly for his choice.
You cannot change the way other people think, but you can learn to accept them as they are. Oddly, these days we have an easier time accepting people as alcoholics or philanderers than as members of the opposite political party. That may say more about the prejudices of the moment than about what is right and what is wrong.
Take it from me. I live in a very conservative town. I have learned to look for the kindness and goodness in people and forget about the politics. Not ignore it, but understand that politics is not the only morality. Just as a person can be an alcoholic but otherwise a good person, a person can be a Bush-supporter but in other ways very honorable and good. If I don't think that way, I live alone. That's just how it is sometimes.
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Hypocrite and Liar
[Read the article: Bush and Gonzales, or the accountability moment that wasn't]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Bush would have let Gonzales go a long time ago, except that the Justice Department scandal was diverting attention from Iraq, and from his more serious attempts to breach civil rights. The Gonzo sideshow soaked up a lot of ink that could have been spent on more substantial allegations. Now that Gonzales is more of a liability than an asset as a shield, Bush throws Gonzales away, AND blames Congress for it.
I have nothing but contempt for Gonzales, but I cannot believe he allowed the president to use him that way for so long. If Gonzales had any self-respect he would walk right out of his office today and into a newsroom and tell everything he knows about that creep we call a president.
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Bush Won't Do Anything for New Orleans
[Read the article: "Your call cannot be completed as dialed"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]There is no chance that Bush will help New Orleans.For him to become responsibile now would be an admission that his policies have failed so far. Remember Iraq? GWB would rather see Americans die than admit he is wrong.
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Bush and the War Myth
[Read the article: The waning power of the War Myth]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Thank you for finally saying what I felt was true all along -- that Bush invaded Iraq not because we needed to do so strategically, but because Bush wanted to consolidate power here.
I have always felt the Iraqi war was simply a tool for re-election, and to fashion a permanent Republican majority. And it might have worked, too, if Bush hadn't foolishly grabbed for more and more power, with his eavesdropping, his pathetic Justice Department scandals, and his insistence on the morality of torture.
While you can't count on courageous men and women to stand up to a tyrant, you can always count on plain old fashioned greed to expose him. We're all sinners. Especially the big shots.
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The Man's A Genius
[Read the article: Maybe they just need to "turn the corner"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I have never heard a better spin on "I know I hardly ever come here, but there's a really good reason why."
Maybe it would work with a girlfriend: "Honey, I know I never call, and I never come to see you, but you look beautiful. If I saw you every day, I would tire of your remarkable good looks. But because I spend so much time with my other women, when I come by you look so pretty, so sexy. I'm glad I don't see you very often, or I would tire of you. Let me toss this condom in the trash. Well, gotta go!"
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This Is the One Way College Football Is Like the College Experience
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Remember in college when you had to choose a class to take? You could take an easy class where you would definitely get a good grade, like Music Appreciation or Comparative Abstract Art, or you could take a course where you would actually learn something, like Organic Chemistry or Cellular Biology. Most of us, I hope, took at least a few challenging classes, but there was go getting around the fact that easy classes did wonders for a sagging GPA.
Cream-puff classics will never disappear from college football as long as schools are rewarded for shellacking AA schools with bowl bids.
I remember years ago a Kansas State team led by Danny Manning that won the NCAA title with a 19-11 regular season record. That's what college B-ball has over football -- a regular season loss, or even a bunch of them -- is not the end of the world.
The BCS causes these matchups with its crazy rating system.
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You Can't Be Serious
[Read the article: The "Midwest Teen Sex Show"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I checked out an episode. The thing is completely crass, and offers no meaningful information except to say that teens shold use contraception. I can't understand why anyone would think dumbing down information so much would be of any benefit.
The only thing this series will do is, because it is so casual in its attitude, encourage teens to approach sex casually. Which is exactly what we need, more teenagers taking a casual attitude towards sex. Even the condom commercial you highlighted does a better job of pointing out the consequences of sexual behavior.
The most disturbing thing is that the producers of this show are adults. If an adult taught this kind of thing to my child I would have them arrested for lewd conduct with a minor. Since the show seems to be permissive towards sex and is produced by adults, I think there is a serious legal issue here, and the people who made this show may end up in a lot of trouble with the law.