Letters to the Editor
Emyth
Published Letters: 61 Editor's Choice: 9
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First Action??
[Read the article: The K Chronicles]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Hanging nooses was the "first action"? In what way can you say that? "Decorating" that tree didn't happen in a vacuum. It was a response to something else...which was in response to something else...which was in response to something else...and so on...
Attempting to find the "first action" or "first cause" in this case is futile. And it is beside the point: Something is rotten in Jena – just like it is rotten is the rest of the US-of-A... We're not finished working through racism, with understanding it and rooting it out. It keeps coming back... Trying to affix blame for racism rather that assuming responsibility and taking steps to ameliorate and eventually eradicate it is a problem.
Some may judge Poco's comments obnoxious; but there is absolutely no need to "kick the crap" out of anything here with words or on the playground with boots. That sort of violent response is exactly the problem folks, no? And then there are some valid points in what Poco brings up that need to be addressed. This rotteness we call "Racism" is old and has festered so long that it is a complex mix of poisons, pus and sewage in a deep societal/civic wound. To clean this mess up will take something more than a band-aid or hydrogen peroxide...Simple solutions just won't work.
Keef is a good man who does a good job. I feel privileged to read and share his work. However, he's not Superman...and we can't expect him to fix and address everything – and save truth, justice and the American Way!!! He just does his part. I'd hope that more Salon readers would do as well in their responses.
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Wrong is Good - Vague is Bad... Seriously?
[Read the article: Our rosy future, according to Freeman Dyson]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]So tell me, if you were taking a trip somewhere you've never been before, would you rather have a map that's somewhat vague but which is accurate, or a map that's clear, precise, detailed - and just wrong?
Vagueness can actually be a virtue at times, whereas "wrongness" is never, ever okay... Vagueness can be a good way to move forward when and if there is an element of uncertainty involved in a situation, where a misplaced certainty that is mistaken (or "wrong") is just dangerous.
"It is better to be wrong than to be vague" - Freeman Dyson
Well... That shows me exactly where he's coming from and where he's going. Just another scientist with a PhD in some field (Physics in this case?) who thinks that a piece of paper entitles him (they are almost always men) to sound-off about anything and everything that flits through his mind... Religion, Philosophy, Theology, Health, Psychology, Sociology, Politics, Economics, Ecology, Ethics, Music, Art, History, Fashion, what have you. After all, it's all Physics anyway...
Surely someone has come up with a nice, sharply cutting label for this intellectual fallacy by now. For some reason this sort of grandiose mis-speaking is becoming more and more common of late. Perhaps it's a balancing negative consequence to the advances in interdisciplinary studies made over the past thirty years. This sort of sophomoric pontificating is rather annoying to those who have gone and done the real work in other disciplines and who recognize the pitfalls surrounding any deep human questions.
But now that I think about it, it's worse than annoying... The certainty with which these so-called experts make their pronouncements is seductive to those who don't know better. It's confusing to those who are trying to figure and find their way. And it is really reprehensible for those who do this sort of thing are not true scholars and authorities; they obviously have very personal, private reasons for spouting-off.
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Now <i>that's</> scary...
[Read the article: The K Chronicles ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I wonder what Da Vinci or the Bible Code has to say about it... Perhaps it all adds up to 666... Have you looked it up in Nostradamus? Do you hear "Bush" and "Cheney" is you play the film soundtrack backwards?
It's a stitch... It's a tricky treat. I'll put it up in my cubicle for colleagues to enjoy. Thanks