Letters to the Editor
gradysu
Published Letters: 156 Editor's Choice: 40
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You're not doing him any favors...
[Read the article: Help! I'm falling for a fat man!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...if you stay with him "against your better judgment." Or if you stay with him but still feel shame or pity. People ALWAYS overestimate how good they are at hiding their feelings. If there's any real closeness or intimacy in the relationship, the other person picks up on those feelings.
If you feel inherently "better" than he is, that inequality will play itself out in all kinds of destructive ways in your relationship. If he gets angry with you for any reason, you'll find yourself wondering what gives him "the right" to be angry with you. And if you find yourself insecure or afraid of losing him, you'll be ashamed about it.
If you can't look at this man with the same love, pride, and vulnerability that you could look at a "normal-looking" man with, then do him and yourself a favor and break it off. It sounds like he's a terrific guy. He'll find someone else who doesn't have your issues; he doesn't need a lifeline.
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Yes, let's show the terrorists we mean business...
[Read the article: Revoltin' Bolton]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...by letting an incompetent, ineffective jackass continue to represent us at the UN.
That'll show 'em!!
Did it ever occur to Voinovich that rhetorical bombthrowers like Bolton are virtual recruiting posters for terrorists?
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Maybe this will rally the wingnuts around Harris...
[Read the article: Hitler, Stalin and ... Joe Lieberman?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...and help her win the primary.
Howard Dean always makes a good bogeyman for the right wing anyway, and this gives them more red meat to salivate over.
The only problem Dean may have on his hands is if Stalin's descendants start picketing his office.
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What about anti-Catholic bigotry?
[Read the article: Mel on the cross]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Where is the outrage when Hollywood produces films that fairly drip with anti-Catholic bigotry?
Off the top of my head, I can think of Priest, Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All, True Confessions, Monsignor, Stigmata, Dogma, Agnes of God. Give me a few minutes and more--many more--will come to mind. But I'd like to post this letter and get back to work.
And that's not even taking into account the rhetoric that flies on a regular basis, for which there is not only no censure, but applause. Tony Kushner, in an article in The Nation, for example, calls the Pope a "homicidal maniac." Somehow I don't recall the outrage that followed. But then, I'm Catholic, so I must have been home frantically fingering the rosary beads and having insane visions, when I wasn't getting drunk on holy wine and committing some form of sexual hypocrisy.
What Mel Gibson said was reprehensible. But if he had said eqaully vile things, cold sober, about Catholics, not a door in Hollywood would have been closed to him. In fact, he'd be embraced as "topical" and "edgy."
Anti-Catholic bigotry is one of the few forms of bigotry that is not only tolerated, but celebrated in Hollywood.
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Get a clue, Ignatius...
[Read the article: Mel on the cross]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...this isn't about you. But thanks for the mini-biography, I'm sure we're all fascinated!!
This isn't about pedophilia, either. Yes, that scandal was a disgrace--and other faiths have suffered similar problems (though they don't get the same salacious headlines).
Most anti-Catholic movies, like Agnes of God, True Confessions, The Magdelene Sisters, etc. have NOTHING to do with pedophilia. The breadth of anti-Catholic stereotypes ranges far beyond pedophilia, taking in hypocrisy;, sexual frigidity (about as far from a sex crime as you can get);, deranged, abusive nuns; alcoholism; outright insanity; thieving church officials; and on and on.
Your post addressed NONE of these things. And your claim that there is no such thing as anti-Catholic bigotry betrays an astonishing sociological and cultural ignorance.
Name an equal number of films, songs, television shows, and celebrity quotes that attack any other religion.
This topic is about religious bigotry. In this case, a Catholic is being jusitifiably villified for saying hateful things about another religion. My point--which seemed fairly straightforward but clearly flew over at least one head the first time--is that it would be nice if such bigotry were not tolerated toward ANY religion. Not exactly a controversial stance--or so I thought.
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Kate...
[Read the article: Mel on the cross]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The Magdelene Sisters took dramatic liberties with realities, grim as those realities were. It also ignored the documented efforts of the nuns who tried to change the situation and free the girls. But even if you take every dramatization you see as the gospel truth, as apparently you do in this case, that is one movie out of all the anti-Catholic movies, songs, shows, celebrity rants out there.
I must have been swilling the communion wine again, because I can't ever recall saying that "all Catholics are good and just" or that true stories should not be shared.
My point--again, a simple one, or so I thought--is that I wish all religious bigotry were treated with equal outrage. That's it. That's. My. Whole. Point. Period.
Again, I challenge you to cite any other religion about which Hollywood has produced such vitriol on a consistent basis, or any other religion about which it is not only acceptable but fashionable to say truly vile things.