Letters to the Editor
kansasgirl
Published Letters: 93 Editor's Choice: 14
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Nothing cool about speeding down dirt roads
[Read the article: My backroad memorial]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm sorry for the author's loss, but as someone who grew up on a farm off a gravel road, I don't see anything romantic about speeding down dirt roads. I'm thankful that the people who barreled down the gravel road next to our house only succeeded in killing 2 of our dogs and several cats instead of my brother or myself or my parents. Several of them did manage to kill themselves in car accidents. Some managed to take out other innocent passengers in other cars - I remember one particular accident that killed a grandmother and her 5 year old granddaughter. (The grandmother wasn't speeding but the guy who plowed into her car was.)
Farm roads are full of hazards - slow moving farm equipment, loose gravel or uneven dirt roads, deer and other wild animals, kids riding horses, tall corn crops that block intersections. Typically speed limits are lower on these roads, and they are for a reason.
I've already seen a couple of letters from people reminiscing about their own days of speeding down country roads. I love to drive fast as much as anyone, but I don't because I realize how dangerous it is. I hope others reading this article do as well.
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Re: Be Afraid!
[Read the article: My backroad memorial]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The California Condor writes: "We should instead celebrate Susan's zest for life. She seeks out enjoyment, and even recognizes there may be consequences, but she seems willing to accept those consequences. Good for her!"
Maybe Susan is willing to accept those consequences, but how about other drivers on the road? How about her children who are in the car with her? Maybe she could celebrate her zest for life by skydiving, or mountain climbing, or even renting time a race track where she can drive at excessive speeds on an enclosed track in a safe(r) environment.
Choosing to drive the speed limit is not choosing a life of plodding low risk. People can live adventurous, challenging lives without engaging in reckless activites that threaten others' lives.
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Why I'm not signing the "Fire Imus" petition I got from NOW
[Read the article: Imus offends]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I don't know much about Imus. I agree his comments were racist and insulting. However I'm not signing any petitions to have him fired either. I've never listened to his show, and I don't plan to start now. People who do like his show are free to turn it off if they disagree with it. CBS Radio can choose to fire Imus. (I'm pretty sure it's CBS Radio - it wasn't mentioned in the Broadsheet article, but according to the NY Times link they own his syndicated show.)
It's not a free speech issue either - as DurianJoe points out, free speech gives you the right to express your opinion, not the right to use broadcasting to express your opinion. But I'm unsettled by this for the same reason I'm unsettled when an evangelical Christian group tries to get a TV show off the air because they find it offensive, or a liberal group tries to get the 700 Club thrown off the air, or when there was the big brouhaha over Bill Maher's comments on 9/11. If you don't like a TV show or radio show, turn it off! Something is always going to offend someone.
As someone who worked in the broadcast industry for several years, I guarantee that every receptionist at every TV and radio station in the country gets their share of crank calls daily from people complaining about something that offended them and should therefore be taken off the air. Yes, Imus's comments are especially egregious. So I won't listen to his show. I don't listen to Rush Limbaugh or Howard Stern either, but I'm sure I'd be every bit as offended if I listened to them. So my advice to all of you is what the receptionist at my last job used to tell people when they complained about TV shows we aired: try using the "off" switch.
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JQuest
[Read the article: My backroad memorial]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Why do you wonder if the complainers are driving 5 star crash rated vehicles? Why should that matter?
Some people can't afford newer vehicles with great safety features. My car has the best safety features I could get in my price range, but other more expensive cars are far superior. My old used car was probably a deathtrap, but it was all I could afford at the time.
Regardless, I think anyone driving or riding in a registered vehicle has the right to be on the road, and that if a reckless driver plows into them and kills or injures them, the fault is with the reckless driver, not with the victim who didn't have top-of-the-line safety features.
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to MikeKC
[Read the article: Imus offends]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]MikeKC writes to me: "And maybe you would still have a job in TV if you didn't aim to piss off half the audience."
I never aimed to piss off half the audience when I worked in TV, and even if I had, it wouldn't have been possible to do in my position. And whether or not our audience was pissed off has nothing to do with why I don't work in TV today. You're making some pretty big (and misguided) assumptions about me.
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I'm with drinkwater
[Read the article: Michelle Malkin plays the victim card]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I've seen some pretty vile things about conservatives and right-wingers posted right here on the Salon letters page. I don't see why it's any worse when it's directed at a tech blogger than at Michelle Malkin. Yes, she does court attention and is often provocative. But many of the comments directed at her and Coulter have to do with their bodies or their status as women (or in Malkin's case, her ethnicity) rather than their political views.
And personally, I thought Malkin made a good point on her blog on how to cope with internet threats. She writes:
"Here's a review of my "code of conduct" on how to cope with Internet threats: 1) Report the serious threats to law enforcement. 2) Keep blogging."
That sounds reasonable to me. It doesn't sound like someone playing the victim card either.
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ReganaD
[Read the article: Michelle Malkin plays the victim card]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Putting quotes marks around your own words and then pretending they're someone else's words doesn't make a valid point.