Letters to the Editor
stackey-dackey
Published Letters: 242 Editor's Choice: 8
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I've read quite a few of these letters
[Read the article: It's my abortion, too!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]And what gets me is the whole argument that since women have the choice whether or not to have an abortion, then the father should have the choice whether or not he will support the kid.
What kind of man doesn't want to support his children? Whatever you may feel about the mother, the kid is a part of you. Sure, there are woman who trap men in to paying child support, but it's CHILD support. Since the courts are involved, there is a lot oversight on how the money is spent so if she's using it to take trips with her new lover and starving the child, it'll come out.
C'mon, you guys. Did your fathers abandon you and you blame mommy for it and that's why you're acting like such schmucks? It's called responsibility. And don't say women don't have to take responsibility in that situation, because they do. Raising a kid is all about responsibility. Getting child support for most of the lower middle class and middle class women in this situation doesn't mean she's on easy street.
Dang...
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Stop whining like a little girl
[Read the article: I'm a suburban husband in my 40s and I think I'm getting depressed]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I think the letters from people who say the LW should realize how lucky he is (often in a snide way, btw) are way off base. Sure he's privelaged, presumambly white (why you all assume he must be white is interesting, since he never said that. He could be Asian, or Latino or god forbid, black) but until he accepts the fact that he's feeling bad, and stops beating himself up about feeling bad, he'll never move past it. All of that harshness won't work; it'll just add shame to his emotional pain. So for the love of god, can you guys stop? He's a human being and even privelaged, possibly white, rich folks deserve respect and our attention. And this is coming from a poor black woman.
And LW, Don't feel ashamed for feeling bad. Heck, maybe it's hormonal or chemical. And yes, you should take 10:30's advice and count your blessings. Which sounds so much better than screaming about what a worthless human being the LW is for feeling bad about himself and his life.
See, we are real people and words hurt. Most torturers tell you what they are going to do to you before they do it to you, not as a heads up.
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"Privilege"
[Read the article: Another San Francisco tragedy]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I can't beleive some of the responses to Joans blog. Anyone with any sense (sorely lacking in the quick-to-be-offended salon letter writers) can see exactly what's she's saying. Any city in the United States is priviliged; wealth and hope rub shoulder to shoulder with poverty and despair. SF is a perfect example of that sort of disparity.
I remember thinking when I lived there 5 years ago that there were twenty different levels of being going on right in front of my eyes. As a young bohemian/profession, I waded through a world that sometimes touched the bottom, but was mostly in the top tier. And it was scary how much I didn't see. How many times I stepped over homeless people or heard gunshots and dismissed. Maybe it's because I grew up in Oakland, and learned to differentiate between semi automatic and small caliber hand guns at an early age. I have cousins who've been shot, and who, I'm sure, have shot other people.
It's sad. But I think Joan is saying that we need to wake up to the problem and stop saying, who cares. A murder is a murder is a murder. It ain't. That person murder, even a 17 year old gangbanger, has a mother, and sibling and a father whose pain is as valid as a suburban white man who loses his daughter in Aruba. Or wherever.
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Obama=Muslim
[Read the article: Barack Obama: "Committed Christian -- Called to Bring Change"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I hesitate to call this a smear campaign (because I don't think being a muslim equal being evil, personally) but South Carolina is right over the bridge from where I live, and I've been hearing Obama is a muslim on all of the newspaper message boards, etc. The funny thing is that I saw the exact same posts on tbe Baltimore Sun Website, the Augusta Chronicle Website and even the Chicago Sun Times, so it's obviously some sort of conspiracy. I wish there was a way to do a real investigation in to who is behind these "attacks"
Even when presented with the truth, the trolls say Obamba is lying, so it doesn't really make any sense trying to refute them. I even read one where the guy said Obamba wouldn't swear on the Christian bible and demanded he be given a Koran! I know there was a muslim senator (can't remember his name)who used Thomas Jefferson's Koran to be sweared in, but it's definitely a brillant ploy to say it was Sen. Obama; plenty of right wingers were up in arms about that (and probably some democrats as well) and like me, they can't remember who it was. I'm sure it doesn't seem farfetched to beleive it was the Senator from Illinois with the muslim sounding name.
The truth is, that Obamba can't really combat this sort of the smear. The truth is, that the sort of people who would beleive that kind of b.s. aren't gonna change their minds, even if Obamba started speaking in tongues. They want a reason NOT to vote for him that's at least little less evil. It's okay to discrimminate against Muslims, but to say they won't vote for him because he's black...now that would be racist.