Letters to the Editor
MarieA
Published Letters: 298 Editor's Choice: 20
-
Divorce is hard--do what's right anyway
[Read the article: My ex wants our 14-year-old daughter to witness his new wife's childbirth]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Certainly the daughter should be consulted and Cary's last paragraph is utterly right on, although 14 is not a little kid. Plenty of girls have babies themselves at 14.
I want to address the LW's feelings as a mom. One of the hardest moments for a divorced mom is when the ex brings a new child into the family.
Your daughter is going to have a sibling and that's going to change her life. A sibling can be a great thing; encourage her to be close to the baby. When you and her dad are long gone, her sibling will be all she has. If she has a distant or rocky relationship with the other child, it will make her life harder.
Your life is going to change in unpredictable ways and you have no control over it. Your daughter's relationship with the stepmother is going to change, at times in good ways (which may aggravate you with jealousy) and in bad ways (yea--she hates the stepmom, but you have to deal with the angst).
Tough.
That's part of the deal when you divorce, even if the divorce wasn't your idea. Be the bigger person and you will never regret it. (I speak from experience.)
Get your own life. Maybe a new man isn't in the picture for you. That's okay. Fill your life with other stuff. Your daughter is 14; it won't be long until she's grown up.
Deal with things as they come but don't dwell on the ex or his new family.
-
Never concede power over free speech to the government
[Read the article: Zanan silenced; outcry getting louder]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This is a real object lesson in ceding power to the government over the free press.
When I hear people saying that newspapers should be licensed in some way (and I have heard this at times from both the "Right" and "Left" over the years so don't get snippy on me), this kind of action is precisely why it is completely wrong to do so.
The power to license is the power to destroy.
The same is true in the debate over "legitimate" journalists. Many in the so-called mainstream press as well as those outside it at times call for some sort of license to prove who are "real" journalists.
Never forget that what the government giveth, the government can taketh away.
-
Oh Puh-leeze!
[Read the article: David Shuster, scapegoat?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Pimped out has become a ubiquitous phrase meaning only that one is shilling. If he'd said that Chelsea was shilling for Hillary or being used as eye candy for the campaign or as bait for voters, would he have had to apologize? It's not the same as calling her a whore.
Let's all get a grip.
At this rate, every person in the media and political life will have to resign at some point, which will then result in each of them having to be rehired in rotation because there will be no new inventory of available personnel.
Oh, wait. I see that's already happening.
Good grief.
-
My goodness--you DO have low self esteem!
[Read the article: Out of great suffering comes beauty]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]When the man said, "Thanks for coming. It's so hard to get first-rate speakers to come to Saginaw," he was almost certainly paying you a compliment.
Only a man with impaired self esteem would consider that an insult.
At least you didn't suffer the indignity that I once endured when someone said to me, "I love your singing. You know who I REALLY like? Barbra Streisand!"
-
Different strokes for different folks
[Read the article: Help! I'm a prisoner in a big suburban house!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If LW wants to live in an urban community, he should configure his life over the next few years to do so. But he should consider the logistics of his life if it changes, particularly in regard to children. Of course, many people successfully raise children in urban communities, but many people move to the suburbs precisely because they perceive (right or wrong) that there advantages to raising kids in the burbs.
While I'm not fond of the "garage with attached house" look myself, I live in a suburban community that is not like that and it is the perfect thing for our family.
I like being able to get in my car and go whenever/wherever I want to. Cars are popular because they represent freedom, even if they can be traps at times. Nothing is perfect.
The bottom line is, make a reasoned choice, fully evaluating your options and what you can predict of the future. To paraphrase "Davy Crockett" -- Decide what's right and then go ahead.
-
The terrorists have already won
[Read the article: Jihadis throw a wild bash over the Protect America Act]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Ours is a country that stood firm for almost 50 years against the USSR which had nuclear warheads pointed at us.
And now the country will be destroyed by terrorists because we don't allow unconstitutional warrantless invasions of our privacy?
This is disgraceful.
-
Aren't humans clever?
[Read the article: The secret life of sperm]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Oh, how I enjoy (as in "enjoy") reading articles that explain how penises (or any other body part for that matter) were "designed" to do this or that.
If you're going to write about science (and frankly, a lot of what you're written here sounds shaky), use precise language. Please. I'm begging you.
-
Remember when ...
[Read the article: The Leader isn't protecting us and keeping us safe]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]we used to think FISA was an unconstitutional infringement because it was a secret court?
Or was that just me?
Ah, the good old days ...
-
War is Hell
[Read the article: Killing "Bubba" from the skies]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]All war is brutal, nasty, has ugly killing, abuses, righteousness, fear, loathing, impersonality, the killing of innocents.
This is why we must go to war wisely and only when the need arises for direct self defense.
This is, 60 years later, we are only just now questioning, in the most tentative terms, the correctness of dropping nuclear weapons on Japan in WWII.
We are appalled by our government's actions because we sense that it is just too easy. And it is.
-
You can only fight the laws of economics for so long
[Read the article: Wal-Mart can be good for your health]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Doctors have done an excellent job of maintaining their monopoly, but, as with any monopoly, cracks start to form eventually. And even with such a limited amount of competition, physician practices are starting to step up a bit.
The competition is good for everybody.
Welcome to the Brave New World, docs!