Letters to the Editor
Amerigo
Published Letters: 955 Editor's Choice: 60
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To anonymous stoner parent barfly
[Read the article: My 28-year-old girlfriend wants to do drugs -- just like I used to!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Is our lack of tolerance due to not traveling overseas?
No, I don't think it is. I am highly intolerant of drugs and drinking, having seen the effect on many people in my professional life, on my wife who died from heroin overdose (that is what the death certificate says, even if Xanax should probably be a co-defendant), and on my tenants who get behind with the rent, but are never short of alcohol.
I have lived in three countries other than the USA and have visited about 20 others. Everywhere you go, you see the destructive effects of alcohol and drugs. Or at least you do if you are aware of them. The UK has terrible social problems related to alcohol and drugs, which are the root of nearly all evil, or at least nearly all crime. I lived in Bermuda, which is one of the most affluent, idyllic, tranquil places on earth, but exactly the same applied. The entire small population of junkies there was wiped out in the early 80's by AIDS, but another bigger crop grew up to replace them. The island had a huge AIDS morbidity as a percentage of the population, mostly due to the activities of addicts passing on the infection to their partners and families. Alcoholism also has a marked effect on overall life expectancy.
I think it is a mistake just to consider the effects of alcohol and drugs on upper-middle class professional whites. You have to look at the whole population so see the real effects.
Having worked a great deal with criminal and mentally ill (and both) populations in the US, it is pretty apparent to me that the inhibition-lowering effects of alcohol and marijuana are implicated much more in offenses like rape and pedophilia than people would like to think, and they are invariably wheeled out as mitigating factors or excuses, when I think the reverse should be true. "So you took an illegal substance knowing that it might make you lose control of your behavior? Double the sentence!"
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Wonderwoman
[Read the article: My 28-year-old girlfriend wants to do drugs -- just like I used to!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You have made some good points in your letters, especially the one about an asshole on crack being an even greater asshole. Anyone who has remained sober in the company of drunks intuitively knows this to be so.
However your conclusion that a large proportion of those who hear your gospel of empowerment will probably go out and use psychoactive substances, even though you do not advocate drug use shows that your endeavors are pretty self-defeating, and surely you must find this depressing?
You say that you, like Mr. Gradgrind, deal only in facts and not in biography, and say that you are unwilling to discuss your own history of drug use. Does this mean that you do not trust the evidence of your own eyes and other senses? Surely an ounce of personal experience beats a pound of second-hand research findings.
However, what really amazes me is the way in which given enough rope, you actually hang yourself when you deny that we have a responsibility to try to be a positive influence on others, many of whom may be weaker than ourselves. You need to reconsider this and think out the implications.
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Who is Hillary?
[Read the article: Will the real Hillary please stand up?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I don't think there is any mystery about who or what Hillary is.
From a very young age, at least going back to high school days, both Hillary and her husband have been professional politicians, whose main aim in life has been to hold the highest offices in the land.
This does not mean that they are insincere, or that they don't want to do good in the world. It does not mean that their religious faiths are phoney. Hillary is in fact somewhat typically Methodist in her outlook.
What is does mean is that they tend to triangulate their policy positions according to what they think will go down well with the electorate.
Hillary messed up over Iraq because she thought she was aligning herself with majority sentiments. Had she spoken and voted what she probably knew to be the truth, she would probably already be annointed (if Methodists can be annointed!) President-in-waiting.
Personally I don't care for her, but I suppose she would be as competent a chief executive as any of the other applicants.
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Sex and Islam
[Read the article: Sex and the married Muslim]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Actually this woman's positions seems to be that a great deal of unhappiness occurs in Muslim marriages because of lack of knowledge of sexual pleasure for women, and she is trying to improve that situation.
This seems like a reasonable aim, though the experience of America seems to sugggest that most people find satisfying monogamy hard to achieve.
Regardless of whether there is medical proof that homosexuality is acquired or not, it seems basically true to me that being a homosexual in the Muslim world is not a viable position, so you may as well adapt to a facade of heterosexuality or else emigrate. (Personally I do believe genuine conversion is possible in many cases, but that is another story for another discussion.)
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Thrill gone
[Read the article: How can we get back the thrill in our relationship?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The thrill always goes, and it may not come back, but relationships go through phases. There has to be more than sex. You can have great sex with almost any partner, it is not that hard. But for a relationship to flourish, it needs common interests and goals.
The odds are not in the LW's favor, but miracles do happen.