Letters to the Editor
Xrandadu Hutman
Published Letters: 2630 Editor's Choice: 52
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Thanks for continuing to make these.
[Read the article: "Exams"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I like this series. Please keep it up. Just show us what these people's lives are like.
Please provide more information about their economic level and whether they represent the majority of Iraqis or just a particular class.
If people decide to leave Iraq, how do they do so? Is it easy to get a Visa to leave? Do they have to apply for refugee status or something? Do they have to be smuggled out? Where do they go?
Do any of the people in these videos ever interact with U.S. soldiers? What is their opinion of the war, or Saddam's hanging, or Israel/Palestine, or any other political subject? What do they feel about the religious conflicts of the region? What do they want to see happen?
Do these young men and women go on dates? Do they have and live with parents? (We never see them.) Do they have security concerns about appearing on a video that could potentially be seen by Iraq insurgents? Do they have to hold back from certain positions to feel OK about appearing on video?
In this video I was struck by how terrible the school campus looks. It's riddled with graffiti. The surrounding trees and structures, and the way light hits things, remind me so much of Phoenix, Arizona in the United States. I would almost be willing to bet that the classrooms have a similar feeling and smell as the classrooms where I went to school.
I'd much rather watch episodes of this Baghdad series than anything like Lonelygirl15 (now riddled with product placement!) or the typical YouTube video of Billy and his friends lighting farts.
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Rob Anderson isn't using his imagination
[Read the article: "Saif Hearts Noor"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Rob, I don't know what you read by Fisk or whoever. But your statements that "if people can eat in a restaurant, Baghdad can't be so bad" are a failure of your own imagination.
Neither you nor I really knows what it's like to live in Baghdad. But what we do know is that it is a huge, huge city. I don't know exactly how big it is, but I'm guessing it has at least 7 million people in it (there are 26 million people in Iraq, and Baghdad and its suburbs are probably a large portion of that). It's probably as big as Houston, Texas....
I don't know where you live, but where I live, even if the entire city were riddled with gun-toting insurgents and a foreign occupying army, there would still be many areas where life could proceed in a semi-functional fashion at least 3/4 of the time.
I just don't think "Look! People can eat in a restaurant!" is much of an argument that things are going swimmingly in Iraq.
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The word "liberal"
[Read the article: Little boxes]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I consider myself a liberal because I like the way the word sounds. When I eat a cheeseburger, I usually get it with a liberal amount of grilled onions.
I always think of "liberal" as the guy who has a party, and while outside realizes his lonely neighbor is sitting alone, so he knocks on the door to invite him to come join the fun, completely making the guy's night in the process.
"Liberal" sounds like "library" which is where people learn knowledge and ideas and realize their world is a lot more vast and diverse than they ever realized, and that it's OK -- not something to be afraid of.
I also like the word leftist because studies show left-handed people tend to be more intelligent and creative. But it could be the opposite, too -- it could mean people who use their logic and reason, on the "left" side of their brain (assuming they're right-handed).
A "leftist" is somebody who is not afraid not to be "right." All the right people group together in a herd, and whoever's left is "left." Leftists are outsiders, iconoclasts, subversives, truth-seekers.
I'll never understand how liberal has become a bad word. People like Ann Coulter throw around the word "liberal" as if there's something sinister about it.
Are liberals long-haired, patchouli-stinking, goattee-scratching, "Communist Manifesto"-reading, "Z Magazine" subscribing, pot-smoking, reality-avoiding slackers? Not the ones that I know. The ones I know are industrious, ethical, athletic, fun-loving people who just happen to have their minds open a little wider and less hatefully than average.
Anyway, I enjoyed Keillor's article. Usually I skim the first several paragraphs looking for his point, but the way Keillor writes, half the point is getting there and just soaking into his mood. Yes, you are distinguished, Garrison, even if you might have trouble hearing me say it.
Your car keys are over there.