Letters to the Editor
Ben Sen
Published Letters: 541 Editor's Choice: 98
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All Hail To the Reluctant Heros
[Read the article: All hail the king]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This is almost the post I've been looking for since the mid-term elections, but not quite.
The reluctant heros are starting to emerge. McNulty certainly, and Comey by default. I've forgotten the name of the guy at the World Bank who spilled the beans, but he deserves to be on the list as well. The criteria needs to be broad enough to take into account anyone who risks career, position, and status for one reason or another. Their names should be kept, and acknowledged.
I think it'd be a better perspective than even "All Hail To the King," because it would be more positive, less taunting, and simply keep the focus where it belongs--on those who are going to rid the nation of these imposters, thieves, and in Wolfowitz and Gonzales' case--fools.
It is becoming clearer Bush and Clinton have something in common. Ultimately, it isn't forces outside themselves that have led to their undoing--but their own defects. With Clinton, at least, it didn't have to do with how he did the job, but a wound he suffered that never healed. With Bush, it is entirely the opposite--his idea of leadership is everybody jumping over a cliff with him--and the wonder and fear is how many follow.
But it's not over yet. Who is going to step up to the plate next? The big kahunas are still running free. It's not even necessary to say their names. The electorate (or half of it for sure) are waiting expectantly at this point. The props are being moved out of the way. The faces are emerging from the shadows...
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Keep The Door Open
[Read the article: More fallout from the Comey revelations]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]No, they're not "heroes" in the TV sense, they are "reluctant" heroes--which is how it usually is in the real world. Before judging them for what they didn't do, you may want to consider that at least they came through in the current milieu while so many turned the other way entirely, and could care less about what is right, and the rule of law for that matter.
Keep the door open and see who walks through it next. I trust them more than the self-righteous types using the situation to draw attention to themselves.
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Nonsensical Ideological Thinking
[Read the article: Michelle Obama's sacrifice]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You've got to be kidding. This is ideologies problem; it doesn't seem to matter what the ideology is. In this case it's old style feminism. The defining characteristic is making real life fit into little boxes--and then pretending there is something right about the process.
At least, it gave Ms. Dickerson the opportunity to say something positive about Hillary. It's been a long time since I've seen her get any respect at all from what are basically her own. It's been a growing scandal of not giving credit where it is due--the self-centered self-promoters have been winning the race so far...
YOU ACTUALLY THINK MICHELLE OBAMA IS GOING TO SPEND HER TIME ARRANGING WHITE TIE DINNERS? This is the kind of conclusion close minded ideological thinking leads to. You think a job as a vice-president for a hospital is anything at all like being the spouse (male or female) of a viable presidential candidate in any other terms that matter?
And even if it IS what she does until the election--what is it that makes that a problem--unless you want to say it somehow victimizes the subject--who I hope has the self-confidence to reject your unexamined assumptions.
If you were her, Ms. Dickerson, are you saying you'd spend your time espousing the unexpurgated truth to blogland, selling your books, and being "your own person" rather than "reduce" yourself to the "perception" of "wife" of a presidential candidate? Get real.
I thought we were finally over the worst of it, but clearly that is not true. I am male, but I don't think that disqualifies me from being offended when I see this kind of rap dropped on somebody. There is a way to take into account the reality of gender, but the focus here is way too narrow.
Come on, Ms. Dickerson, the 60's, 70's, and 80's are over. In case you didn't notice, a lot of things didn't go so well--big things. Maybe it's time to address them, and give the old horse a rest. Come out, come out, wherever you are.