Letters to the Editor
sfsclark
Published Letters: 15
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Ingalls is fantastic
[Read the article: Mistress of horror]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I've had the great pleasure of reading many of Ingalls' stories collections and novellas over the last 10 or so years. She appeals to me in the same way Shirley Jackson does. Fantastic thought-provoking reads that still haunt me(and I don't mean in the ghost way) years later. I agree with Hillary Frey that more American readers need to discover her - but I don't think Frey's review will help much. Frey's praise is buried under comparisons to other writers and while the comparisons are justified, these do not do Ingalls justice. She deserves more and better.
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Abortion and trauma
[Read the article: Abortion and trauma]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I don't understand the point of the research. Abortion causes trauma for a period of time following the abortion. That's it? Would one have thought any different? Making a decision to have an abortion can be difficult - why wouldn't something as important as that cause high emotions for many women? The research says nothing that is of any use in the debate over abortion - just that some women who opt for it feel bad afterwards. Having an abortion or experiencing a miscarriage is often very difficult. How is this news? Why is this being treated as if it somehow sheds light on the abortion debates?
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Help Other Human Beings & Expect Nothing in Return
[Read the article: Helpless]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I read Martha's acount of her mentorship of Felicia. Martha has done what she can do: let another person with virtually no support system know that she has someone who she can turn to. Martha's presence clearly has not done what she hoped it would do: role model responsible behavior and good decision-making. People like Felicia, and I've been involved in outreach through my church for many years, usually cannot and really do not want to actually change the way they operate. It is a pattern and it is familiar. It is how they were raised. It is a lifestyle that is all they know. I live in the poorest county in New York State (St. Lawrence County), my children go to school with children who don't stand a chance, no decent parenting, no role models at home, no structure or expectations.
Martha's compassion and willingness to help another means she is forced to watch a a long, slow trainwreck. I can only imagine how painful it is. She is doing what she can. But if she expects to see any positiive effects of what she is doing in Felicia's life she will be disappointed. Felicia will likely stay with the boyfriend. Eventually have her own children and make a mess of that. Maybe she will straighten herself out. But the odds are not in her favor.
As a Christian I help people who are less fortunate. I hope for the best for them because there is always hope. But I don't expect anything. Those of us who can basically hold our lives together should assist those who, for thousands of complex reasons, can not. It is, in the end, the least we can do.
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Chris Penn...Five pages in Salon???
[Read the article: The mightier Penn]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Let me be up front: I only read the first page and then skimmed the third and fourth page, but as James Agee said regarding the poor review he gave a production of "Oklahoma" he had not actually seen: "I don't have to see 'Oklahoma' to know it plays badly." My response to this article is in the same vain: I don't have to read it to know its ridiculous. Chris Penn gets five pages on Salon? "A Caravaggio-like dancing teen." Is she serious? The speed with which the writer got this out following his death and the depth of her passion tell me this has been sitting around her desk as a personal musing for awhile. Look, as a kid I had a crush on the actor A. Martinze when he starred in the TV series "The Cowboys" but I'm pretty sure he is not worth five pages. Serious or amusing takes on contemporary culture make for lots of guilty pleasure reading. But the level of sincerity and the exaggerated language make this article seem, well, stupid.
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Coverage of Colbert - what makes Salon great!
[Read the article: Making Colbert go away]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]While I periodically get annoyed with Salon's delight in whipping up the mommy wars, your coverage of the l'affaire de Colbert is exactly what makes this online magazine worth every penny of its membership costs! Not funny?! Of course it was not ha! ha! funny - the truth is never funny. No one gets satire anymore. He said what needs to be said and what the majority of the American people - not to mention the rest of the world - want to say, and having been handed an opportunity and a venue he rose to the occassion in a way that no Washington journalist has the guts to do! That we are spoon fed ridiculous garbage from our govenment is to be expected, but that the powerful are "offended" when we refuse to swallow it is outrageous. The case of John McCain is the best illustrative example. Does McCain need to court the religious right in order to get the Republication nomination which he so desperately wants? Probably. But are we really supposed be silent and nod our heads when he packages it as his evolving understanding of the positive impact this goup of ideologues has had on policy? Is he serious? How stupid do our govenment leaders think we are? Like the famous New Yorker cartoon, Colbert stood up and essentially said "I say it's spinach and I say the hell with it." It makes you proud to be an American.