Letters to the Editor
qazwart
Published Letters: 137 Editor's Choice: 31
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It is mattering less and less
[Read the article: Larry Craig's downfall]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Keillor is right. It is all mattering less and less. In 20 years, it will be safe to be a gay conservative Christian. And if he rails against homosexual sin, it will be against the ones who didn't marry their partners.
There is still need for a lot of improvement, but things have changed. How many times have people wondered about Hillary Clinton being a woman running for office? Even the most right wing commentators don't squawk about how wrong it is for Hillary Clinton to run because "a woman's place is at home." They may hate her for other reasons, but it isn't because women shouldn't be in politics. Many of them once were pushing Rice as a possible presidential candidate not so long ago. There was even talk of Cheney and Rice switching jobs to help the process along.
When the ERA failed to pass in the 1970s, the opponents raised the prospect about women being allowed to serve in the army. How many times have you heard anyone question the fact that women are currently serving in the front lines in Iraq?
My father was drafted in the army in the Korean war. He served as a training sergeant in a military base in Georgia. The army had just been integrated. My father told me how you go to the barbershop and the two white barbers were there on a linoleum floor with barber chairs. Next to them was a Coke machine. Just past the two white barbers was the black barber who had a folding chair for his clients. The linoleum floor ended just past the white barbers, and the floor by the black barber was cement covered in sawdust. Next to the black barber was a pot of water with a dipper in it. That was less than sixty years ago, and it was considered normal. Well, it was really radical because the black barber was in the same building as the white barber. Can you even imagine this now?
When I was growing up in the early 1970s, our schools were integrated. The original proposal was not to integrate the schools, but to have the black and white students bussed to the Natural Science Center once per week to meet each other. Even this was considered unacceptable by many people in my community. When I was young, the real estate section still listed houses by race. Right before I went off to college, the Governor declared how the University doors shall not be blackened. You think any politician could say that today?
Our football team had no blacks on it because our football coach wanted the team to feel like a family. Do you think any coach at any public college would say that on TV today?
When I was growing up, there was a lot of chatter about integrating the dressing rooms in the department stores. Montgomery Wards took out their lunch counters rather than have blacks eat there. Municipal swimming pools were bulldozed in surrounding communities rather than allow blacks to swim there. Parks were closed rather than allow blacks to use them.
The dorm at my college was named after a man who was not only a state supreme court justice, but also the head of the state Klan. Can you imagine naming a building after someone like that now? One of the local heroes of my community was a gas station attendant who refused to serve blacks. When he died, many people went to his funeral and commented about what an individual he was.
And, in case you think I grew up in some hick rural town that no one every heard of, you're wrong. This was Austin, Texas. Now a blue jewel in a Red state.
It may be difficult to realize how far we've come. When I was growing up. It was a wonder to see black faces on TV in any role. Now, no one even thinks about it. When I was growing up, the idea that blacks and whites could go to the same school seemed foreign. When I was growing up, state universities were still fighting integration. The idea that blacks could not only have white collar jobs, but be Lawyers and Doctors would be unheard of. The idea that women could run for political office or have independent careers seemed impossible.
We may still have quite a journey ahead of us, but we have gone a long way.
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Maybe "The Fat Lady" is onto something
[Read the article: Just don't stub it on the guy in the next stall]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Conspiracy?
I was surprised that Alberto Gonzales announced his resignation on a Monday. That meant the whole week for the media to play it out. Usually, you try to announce things like this Friday at 5pm.
Suddenly, before we even had a chance to digest this major bit of news, the whole Larry Craig episode comes out (no pun intended). What a way to get people's mind off of discussing the whole Gonzales matter!
And poor Jon Stewart is on vacation, and missed both episodes.
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Possible joint bid?
[Read the article: Does Apple want to become a wireless carrier?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It would not surprise me if Apple and Google go jointly on a bid for this spectrum.
They have worked very closely together, and if Google is interested in the spectrum, it could be that Apple (if not help with the bid) will produce devices that will use the spectrum. Everyone talks about the gPhone and the gPC, but Google isn't a hardware company while Apple is.
If Google spends $20 billion on a piece of the spectrum, they would want to make sure someone is lined up to use it. That may be Apples part of the bargain. I doubt that Apple would place a bid by itself though. 14 billion dollars won't get you too far in this game, and it really isn't Apple's game.