I call bullshit on those letter writers who say that Traister's article on Houston has no relevance or importance when thrown up against the social and political issues of our day. We, the social and political animals, are the ones who made Houston an extremely wealthy woman and elevated her to the pinnacle she fell from. Of course she's relevant - and just as relevant as the athletes we endow with our billions of discretionary entertainment dollars.

Entertainers are as relevant as politicians, philanthropists, medical workers, athletes, researchers or the people who pick our strawberries up in the central valley of California. Entertainers are just another ingredient in this big soup of life. The fact that they're human makes them as relevant as anybody else.

I'd love to know the truth about the elitists who dismissed this article as being unimportant or irrelevant; I'd love to know how many dollars they spent last year on albums, movies and ballgames. Easy to sit around and shout-down Traister - but if you spent even a dollar on an album last year then you helped create the ongoing relevancy of entertainers like Whitney Houston.

Houston didn't make herself important or relevant. We did it.

Whitney aside for a moment, I sometimes read these responses to articles here and wonder if any of Salon's writers ever have the courage to read what's being said about them. Seems like you'd need to have a full-body keflar suit to get through it alive. I guess it's a good thing I don't write for Salon because I'd never survive the first ad hominem yank on my testicles.

For what it's worth, I found Ms. Traister's article interesting but recognize that it's one person's opinion and not a definitive wrap-up of Whitney Houston's life. There's too much about Whitney that we don't know to be able to arrive at any definitive conclusions about blame. And even if we got the blame properly assigned, does that do anything right now to help Whitney get better? At this stage of the game, can't she be locked up involuntarily? What can be done? I think a truly valuable article would be one that explores the viable options when you're dealing with someone who's as far down the rabbit hole as Whitney is. That would be an interesting read and perhaps more useful than a search for blame.

Like her or not, Whitney's got a set of pipes worth fighting for. Hopefully someone will.

My siblings and I were regularly spanked, beaten and/or hit with whatever was handy until we were in our early teens. My twin and I were the oldest and received what I think was by far the harshest treatment - oftentimes a leather belt on our bare butts while we were kneeled over the side of a bed as if in prayer; our underpants pulled down to our knees. The pain was one thing - I sometimes couldn't sit down for days afterwards - but the humiliation was beyond anything I can even describe.

Even though my parents were both educated and intelligent people, they perpetuated the same forms of discipline that they were brought up with. Our home was a pretty amazing place growing up - except for the devastating beatings that I know have left both my twin and me emotionally scarred and battling a persistent if not diminishing internal rage.

There was nothing either of us could have ever done at eight or nine years old that would have merited a beating with a leather belt on our bare butts. The last time it happened I was so angry that I snuck into my parent's closet during the night and took a knife to their treasured fur parkas and destroyed them. Not a word was ever said about the shredded parkas - no questions were asked. I think they finally got the message that beating me and my twin wasn't the answer and that if the beatings continued so would the destruction of household valuables. My act of destruction sent a clear message and my parents got it and the beatings stopped.

Unlike my twin I didn't carry the propensity to hit or beat people with me into adulthood. I was so devastated by the spankings and beatings that I couldn't even conceive of doing that to another human being. My twin wasn't so lucky though and has battled his instinct to rage with his fists for most of his adult life. The anger he felt towards my parents as a kid over the beatings has persisted and multiplied and it's taken an enormous toll on his well being as an adult.

As I approached parenthood I vowed to myself that I would never hit or spank my children and it was something that I felt so deeply about that it nearly caused me to shake when I thought about it. I vowed to stop the cycle of abuse. And I did. My only child was never spanked, beaten or touched in any way with an angry anything. My twin spanked and/or beat his oldest children until he finally woke up to what he was doing and his younger children were spared both the rod and his terrible wrath. Both of us have ended the cycle of abuse that we were brought up with and hopefully our children will follow our leads.

There is only harm that can come from spanking and beating children. It's not discipline, it's abuse. And it's a form of abuse that carries the potential for lifelong scars that sometimes never fully heal. It doesn't work to hit children - it just makes them angry and hurt children who often turn into angry and hurt adults. There are better ways to teach a child discipline than hitting, spanking or beating them.