Letters to the Editor
walsdtib
Published Letters: 5
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Too many off-the-point letters
[Read the article: Mom's a pothead]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Wow, I like to read the letters because they usually help to broaden Cary's response. In this case, Cary's answer was all that and a bag of sea-salt and vinegar chips, while many of the letters were so far off-the-point, with their own agenda (the agenda of the pot apostles has a legitimate point to make--but the LW asked about aq family, not for a paeon to pot), or focused on the caveats or exceptions in this letter (mom's back pain may legitimize the use of pot instead of pills in this case, and may be an important point, but that is not the central point by the LW; and D.A.R.E. probably does use a smack-them-on-the-head-with-a-hammer means to deliver a message, but let's not assume the kid is "brain-washed" because seeing Mom stoned bothers him).
In general, I side with kid, based on my personal experiences, of having once been the partner of an addicted Deadhead, and of witnessing many of my friend's struggles. I love the Dead and my many DeadHead friends, for both their music and message, but a big part of the music leads to escapism from the reality of life through mood-altering substances. As I watch any number of my "addicted" DeadHead friends struggle with themselves and their families, I, as well as my other friends, usually tell them the same thing: "In your case, you need to get off the dope." And they know can't and won't stop just for their families, so it's not "all good" for them.
I grew-up with an alcoholic father, and a mother with severely-crippling OCD issues, who I've watched (sanely from a distance, for my sake) progress into the crazy-cat-lady pack-rat of today. I often begged my parents to be "normal" in my childhood, for my father not to awaken me at 2AM every night as his drinking buddy for the rest of the night, or for my mom not to make the rounds through our neighbor's trash for "new stuff" in our house.
Rest assured, that if I had finals or a basketball playoff game the next day, my parents would act out their lunacies to the nTH degree that night. Until I eventually learned to stop telling them that the next school day was important, which caused them to act their "normal" lunatic selves.
The kid wants his mom to be there for him, emotionally, mentally, and on whatever other levels we need to include here. Believe me, if I could get a do-over and pick a new set of parents out of the hat, I'd scream "Halluleujah" if God just gave me two tokers as parents. Just having one "semi-normal" parent is an unimagineable concept for me--especially when all I ever wanted was to just have an "average dysfunctional American family" as a kid. No need to discuss my aunt screaming obscenties (in a foreign language, thank goodness)at my father's casket in church at his funeral mass.
Or how surprised I was during my first holiday away from my family when the words "breaking, throwing, hitting, hospital, andor police" were not used!
But the point, made simply by Cary, is that this kid wants his mom "there" for him, and that's the final issu ehere.
Is he being selfish? In one sense, no more so than she--by her selfish escape from him through pot. And I'm sure she wants to be there for him, but she is using every trick in the addict's bag of rationalization to convince herself that she can still smoke her pot, and not affect her son.
I dated a social worker whose first step in taking kids away from bad parents was to convince them that they were GREAT parents, and that if they were a GREAT parents, wouldn't they want the best for their kid, even if it meant their child had to be raised by others?
Does smoking pot make her a bad mother? Lol...no, absolutely not. In this case, however, it ultimately looks like Mom is going to have to pick between either the Kid or Pot. And, if that's the choice, is there really a choice?
In any case,
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More depth is needed in this article
[Read the article: Tucker Carlson, stalwart defender of sexual privacy]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm a bit hazy on the facts, but wasn't Carlson falsely accused of sexual impropriety somewhere several years ago?
Defending Vitter now might be based more from a personal experience instead of a partisan political one. Believe me, I've seen or heard of several horrible false accusation cases, and I know it does certainly change the people involved, to the point that Carlson might even have a different opinion of Clinton today. Also, I'm not sure that comparing ClintonLewinsky to a Vitterescort relationship is necessarily the same. As one difference, Clinton's postion of authority over Lewinsky versus Vitter's offer of money(?) to an escort may change the voluntariness of the relationship.
Glenn, I really think your article is seriously lacking in depth without examining how that event affected Carlson's thinking. Aiming for fairness is more admirable than proving the ability to write a one-sided argument when I read articles.
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Benevolence or a neutron bomb?
[Read the article: Bush's incompetence gives al-Qaida new life]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]6 years later, and we're looking at a stronger enemy?!?! A war that's lasted longer than WW2?
The Bush administration has done a terrible job in reducing this threat to the United States. He's proven that a conventional approach to a guerilla-style enemy is clearly a loser in today's world. And unless we think outside the box, this looks like a fight to the end where there HAS to be a winner and loser, and it will be the United States unless we change our approach...
...so we either must truly become shower the Muslim world with benevolence to steal bin Laden's appeal to them...
...or if Bin Laden is hiding in NW Pakistan, the neutron bomb is the perfect silent and deadly solution in a mountainous, treacherous region...