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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Eric Free
Published Letters: 286 Editor's Choice: 7
About time? Way past time-- it's about thirty years out of date.
This self-indulgent mess reeks of discredited, second-wave, dworkinist, men-are-crap feminism, of the kind that did so much damage to relations between the sexes, tore the country apart, and and allowed its takeover by the Nixon-Reagan-Bush machine and the Far Right.
Enlightened people, particularly younger women, have long since rejected this kind of one sided, the-world-hates-me-because-I'm-superior crap. To see it reappearing on a website I once respected is very discouraging. We're in a war here, folks; there's no time for you-wouldn't-understand-it's-all-about-meism.
Those of us who are in the trenches, fighting for real change, have all we can do to overcome the alienating influence of abortion on demand and a gay marriage initiative right before a major election. Dividing the progressive society, alienating men and sane women and giving ammunition to Far Right media just gives us more to struggle against. What are we suppposed to say: "Ignore the crazies, vote for us anyway?"
To answer one of your questions: No, Maureen Dowd isn't necessary and never has been. Neither is this column, which takes up (apparently otherwise unemployable) personnel and financial resources better put to more political and serious lifestyle reporting. (Yes, sometimes it is about me, but you'd never know it from Salon's fem and gay heavy lifestyle content.) I'm one of your subscribers. I deserve better, and so do all the others.
Eric Fralick
Better to stop enabling self-declared therapists, on the web or in person. Take legal action and live in your house yourself, or live with the problem -- after all, you created half of it.
But whatever you choose, or don't choose, stop asking, or paying, other people to tell you what you should feel.
Most amusing part of the letter: the therapist saying the husband isn't contributing anything to San Francisco society. She's under the delusion that she is, and someone else is paying her for it!
How about a round of appreciation for artist Mignon Khargie. Her illustration for Rebecca Traister's "Brainless Hussies" screed was very much the best part of that pathetic piece, and her addition to Miller's article is just as fine. Hoping we see more of this funny, inventive artist. I knew there was a reason I renewed (apart from the personal plea from Joe Conason).
Notice this piece wasn't contributed by Farhad "Everything's just fine" Manjoo, who supposedly has made election irregularities "his story."
The 2004 election was stolen, not all at one time as in 2000, but by thousands of little "irregularities" all across the country, all of them disenfranchising Democrats. You'd think the loss of democracy, and all the crimes that have resulted from it, would be a bigger story.
Surprising no one noticed the connection, or lack of it, between former Salon advice columnist GK's approach to the world and that of present advisor Cary Tennis, who seems to feel things aren't right unless everyone is strapped in to the neighborhood Twelve Step program.
No wonder this column spawned such a wave of grateful nostalgia, given the psychologic of the last many years: everyone is broken, in need of lifetime therapy, and those who think they aren't just haven't realized it yet.
I was surprised to see how many other writers, like myself, don't have children, at least in part because of concern they'd be arrested for trying to raise them sanely. I remember when kids fought for the privilege of riding shotgun, and know from experience that there's no better time for a parent-child talk. Anyone today who tried talking to a backward facing, backseat riding child would risk the fate of the parents in "The Da Vinci Code."
And what about the once oft-quoted '70s aphorism, "Children should run naked in the sun, and adults should study the mysteries of the Universe." Children? Naked? Sun? Try studying the mysteries of the Universe from the inside of a jail cell, buddy.
But mostly, I'm nostalgic for Keillor, who did some of his finest writing as Salon's advice columnist. I read "Love Me," and was disappointed it wasn't more like his column. As we're unlikely to see that again, we can read the archives, and hope for more like this article.
In the meantime, here's some more advice: Deal with your problems, or learn to live with them. You'd be surprised what you can live with. What ever you do, don't give in to this whining, everbroken, ever badly medicated existence so earnestly advocated by Tennis and his behaviorist friends. Relax. Take a walk. Look up at the sky. And, when you come back, join Keillor in a martini. Not one of those sweety things. A real one. With the good gin.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
219 Democrats and one Republican join in favor of the legislation, which passed by a narrow margin
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Salon headlines in your mailbox
