Letters to the Editor
spankathon
Published Letters: 49 Editor's Choice: 1
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Anonymous knows best
[Read the article: Afghanistan ousts outspoken lawmaker]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Yes, please listen to an anonymous american poster for what afghanistan *needs*. This 'angry woman,' couldn't possibly have any insight...
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Girl Scouts...Yuck
[Read the article: To serve Allah and my country ...]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I belonged to the Girlscouts for exactly as long as it took me to realize that while we were selling cookies, learning how to fold towels, and practicing 'lady-like' behavior, the *boy*scouts were learning survival skills, knife skills, camping skills, and other *fun* skills.
This segregation of knowledge by sex can only reinforce the belief in the inferiority of females present in large swaths of muslim culture as well as reinforcing the sterotypes of muslims that most Americans have.
The Girlscouts is a LAME organization, and it isn't made any less lame by topping its members with 'swirly headscarves.'
'Hijab Arrangement' will be the next GS merit badge, no doubt.
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Admittedly, my experience was 25 years ago, in Utah :)
[Read the article: To serve Allah and my country ...]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Still...it's left a bad taste in my mouth...I can't even look at GS cookies without thinking of the pressure/guilt to sell them...
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No way in hell should spanking be outlawed
[Read the article: To spank or not to spank?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Please read Cary Tennis' current letter if you think spanking should be outlawed.
The issue is NOT whether or not parents should spank their children. The issue is giving still MORE power to a beaurocratic agency which is already unable to protect truly abused children due to a lack of resources.
Is the law to outlaw spanking going to include a law to jack up the budgets of the Child Protective Services? A law to criminalize false accusations? A law to rescind the ability to make anonymous accusations?
This is beside the point of the above, but I can only vaguely remember the spankings I received...the mean things my parents said to me echo in my head with perfect clarity 25+ years later. Shall we outlaw parents saying hurtful things to their children?
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Follow your heart
[Read the article: "Their 40s just seemed to sneak up on them"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I think people should follow their hearts regarding having or not having children.
If you want them, have them. If you don't, don't.
Don't be a population nazi, and don't be a 'babies are the only reason to live' nazi.
More tolerance = better earth.
I never wanted kids, still don't and I'm 35. Not a trace of maternal mania.
OTOH -- even though the thought of having my own children repulses me -- I literally shudder at the thought -- my nieces, nephews, and stepchildren adore me and clamor to be around me, often even above their own parents. Why? Because I have the time, resources, and detachment to treat them as creative, thinking, and autonomous individuals.
We all do our part. Yours might not be pushing. Or it might.
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@ Lola Faire
[Read the article: "Their 40s just seemed to sneak up on them"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Family *is* wonderful, and it can bring out the best in people, but here's the thing *you don't have to have children to be part of a family*! In fact, it is often the childless 'auntie' or 'uncle' to whom children go to receive teachings and validation that their frazzled parents can't give them. Childless people in an extended family are an asset to the family as a whole, not a detriment. Just as children are an asset to a family as a whole, not a detriment. ANY family member -- even (especially?) the most noxious ones -- teach us lessons and help us become more enlightened, productive people.
You *say* you don't judge childless people, but then you go on to imply that childless people have nothing better to do than sip lattes and use more energy per capita than people with children.
To have children or not have children is not something that ANYONE should judge another person for.
Because I don't have children, I have time to volunteer in the community, I have time to teach the young teens in my family photo-shopping and audio production. I have the means to take a kid on his or her OWN to a play or a concert.
Families with kids tend to scramble just to complete the day to day stuff, they are rarely able to give each kid 'alone time' or tailor interests to suit one child. I am. I don't think that's selfish.
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@ Lola
[Read the article: "Their 40s just seemed to sneak up on them"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Yours is the least snarky letter in the thread :)...I know you weren't saying 'childless people suck.' I'm a little touchy on the subject lately. :)
I do think the whole consumerism thing re: kids is a red herring. There are childless people who drive hummers and people with six kids who live in communes.... There are people with kids who have tvs in each room, a new outfit a week, and forty seven activity drop offs a month with their attendant stops for gasoline.
I am low-impact childless... I have lived on less than 10K a year for the past 15 years.
Still, I do no self-back patting because we are ALL complicit in the cycle of greed and american consumerism which is helping to destroy the world (not to mention nearly every american child's self-esteem)
Make no mistake. EVERY AMERICAN is complicit in the greed/war machine. Anyone who owns a computer and has the juice to post to Salon is definitely complicit.
The way to solve this is not by pointing fingers at other people's choice to have or not have children, but to change the system. Yours is a good idea... educate against consumerism and the low self-esteem it fosters.
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Back to the original topic
[Read the article: "Their 40s just seemed to sneak up on them"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]People who want children in their forties should have them, as they always have.
It's NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS.
Repeat. It's NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS if a woman wishes to have a child at 20, 30, 40 or 50.