I was born and raised a white Southern Baptist in Mississippi. Hard to get more Southern. I was driven left by the racism I grew up around in the late 50s and early 60s. Protested the Viet Nam war. Was disgusted when Nixon took Mississippi with 79% in 1968. Couldn't they tell he was a crook?

Essentially what drove me left was Christianity, the teachings of the creed. I doubt many Southern Baptists would consider me Christian now, but I actually believed the words of the New Testament, and it was obvious the leaders of the state were lying. I still believe those words, and though I have not lived in Mississippi for many years, I still hear liars in politics.

In my opinion, the best way to appeal to Southerners is not from social or political expediency. These are people who have chosen against the most expedient path for many generations. The best way to appeal to them is to appeal to their better nature, appeal to the very faith that has so far allowed them to be seduced by lying neo-cons.

Keep hammering the obvious discrepancies of the visible telefundies. Keep saying, By their fruits shall you know them, inasmuch as you have done it unto the least of these my children you have done it unto me. Keep appealing to the sense of fair play and decency instilled in many by the New Testament.

So long as liberals associate all religious faith with fundamentalism, and scorn patriotism, they will not succeed in the South. Hard as it may be to swallow, considering the ugly displays of people like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell (whose autobiography I reviewed for the L.A. Times), one must accept the love of God and country as genuine, and respect it, and seek to guide it to the best behavior rather than simply and blindly opposing it as benighted.

What's so hard about saying that God has made all humans equal and that we should treat each other accordingly?

Fine ideas all. Thing I love most is the head-to-head athletic competitions, especially track and field. Especially distance.

Especially like the ideas of having permanent sites, doing away with the IOC (useless buggers), nationalistic uniforms, flags in the stadia, and crowning with laurel.

Wish there was a way your ideas could be adopted. Afraid they are too reasonable and make too much sense. I never even used to watch bowling on tv, back when I watched tv. It's hard to imagine as a true sport, much less a spectator sport.

Okay, true, it takes a certain sort of physical skill. So does making ugly faces or farting a given note.

I love the idea of "entertainment sports." That's would I would call bowling, equestrianism, curling, and yes, even though I know it requires a certain athleticism, synchronized swimming--or what we used to call water ballet.

While personal compassion is highly desirable, and one should always be as kind as possible, bad writing is bad writing. One would not encourage a person with no math skills to become an engineer. One would not applaud the performance, in a ballet, of a person who cannot dance.

Fine writing is not therapy. It is not feelgood personal liberation. Those uses of writing have definite value, but if the only value we allowed for music was that attempting it helped people with their psychological difficulties, we would be seriously mischaracterizing it.

Writing is a special case among the arts. It is key, essential, takes years of discipline and effort, and yet everybody and his or her sibling is convinced he or she is capable. Why? In my opinion, because everyone uses language every day, and as a result no one understands she or he is not a master.

I don't know how many times I have had a nonwriter say to me something like, I have great ideas, I'm just too busy to write them down. Hey, maybe you can look over my stuff.

The latter is code for "Tell me what a genius I am."

I do not mind bumptious ignorance, but it is rather insulting to be treated as if that discipline to which you have given your life and your hardest work amounts to nothing, to have it implied that just anyone can do it.

Anyone can't. Let's get that straight.

Like Helix said, good writers in this culture are underpaid, disdained, ignored. In my opinion, if you fix the incredible lack of esteem in which true writers are held, you will fix most of the slush-pile awfulness. A proper reverence for mastery makes it clear what mastery is.

You haven't picked up a brush in forty years, and you just took up painting? Odds are your first painting is not a masterpiece. Same way with writing.

Let's see some understanding and respect for those who recognize, understand, and promote clarity, liveliness, and effect in words, then I'll worry about the feelings of bad writers.

There is one good reason not to become angry and remonstrate, however. Nobody but nobody likes to be told they can't write. No matter how true it is, never ever say that to anyone. You will never be forgiven. You will be visited with vituperation as one of the meanest-spirited people alive.