Letters to the Editor
lexsali
Published Letters: 73 Editor's Choice: 9
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What were those photographs about?
[Read the article: Interrogating Abu Ghraib]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Is Morris serious? What does he think was behind all of those committees formed, those long investigations, resulting in indictments of seven people, the uproar in the media around the world, what was the point of all that? Was it not to understand what was behind those photographs?
And who better to tell us than the people who took them? Did they not have ample opportunity to tell the world why they took those photographs, what was behind them, what they were hoping to accomplish? How about in the courtroom, in the newspapers, on the countless morning shows and talk shows devoted to this topic, in front of the government committees and special panels, etc? The fact is, they DID tell the world what those photographs were about, and what those shameful photographs were about is in the name of Morris' film: standard operating procedure.
Don't try to tell me there was a larger context that no one in the world understood, that there's some ambiguity in those photographs that wasn't explored. There were less enough people that went down for this as it is. Everyone knew what the top level officials were doing: scapegoating the little people, and yet they were ALLOWED to scapegoat, allowed to get on with their lives, and the military turned a blind eye to the scapegoating in shame and fear that if they started indicting top officials, it could happen to them as well. And no doubt the atrocities are still being committed in many cellars of many prisons around Iraq, and will not stop until this war is over.
And yes, I AM looking for someone to blame. Any film that does not explain to me who did this and why, is not worth my time. Any film that purports to explain how even the people who went down for this are somehow shrouded in a cloud of ambiguity as to whether even they were to blame, is just too disheartening and completely unbearable.
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I was there....
[Read the article: I'm completely irresponsible and I live at home mooching off my parents]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]And I did exactly what you are doing, and now I DEEPLY regret it. I was at a great university, my parents were paying for everything, including my car, my cell phone, my food, basically everything. And what did I do? I graduated with the lowest possible GPA needed for graduation. LOL
And now, I have landed a job (which I can only call myself impossibly lucky for landing), and now living on my own and responsible for myself, I want to go higher. I'm now at a point where I want to achieve some things in life. I want to go back to school for my graduate degree. Unfortunately, with my GPA, I'll probably be laughed at. It's depressing, to say the least. It really sucks to think that I had everything, and completely blew it, while my friends took advantage of the same situation and are now in med school or grad school.
But honestly, there was something underneath my failing GPA. It was my own mistrust of myself, self-doubt, the fear of being a failure, of letting everyone down. For most people, these feelings would turn them into over-achievers. For me, it did the opposite. Sometimes it happens, that once you start down that slope, you keep falling and digging yourself deeper. Some people are like that.
So first of all, you're not the only one that's messed up a really good situation. Your parents may seem pushy and over-bearing now, but there will come a time when you will look back and ask yourself why you didn't make the best of a great thing. You will come to a point in life where you want to be the guy in a suit, "making something" of yourself, maybe go back to school, maybe start something, and you won't have the credentials. I'm not saying people without college degrees aren't happy. But most people do wish they had finished college, at some point in their lives.
Bottom line: Stick it out. Get your degree. It's only a year or two. You will NOT regret it.
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Three poinTs here...
[Read the article: Girls on Miley Cyrus: She's a slut]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]1) It's only when someone else does that sort of thing, then SHE is a whore. There's no self-inspection at the teenage level. Everyone does it, actually: when we're rude to people, we're just having a bad day; when someone else is rude, they're bad people. When we lie, it's a slip/one-time thing, when someone else does it, it's reprehensible, etc.
2) They're not dressing slutty, it's the fashion of the day. When they dress sexy, they're not necessarily thinking like hookers, they're not going to go out there and exchange sex for money. They're just following what the advertisements tell them is cool: more skin, more cleavage, more legs, etc. It's fashion! I can't for the life of me find anything that covers my chest anymore in the malls, thank goodness for the internet!
3) There has to be a line drawn somewhere. Granted, this line was drawn at a much earlier point before than it is now, but there still has to be a line- and that line is selectively applied by the teenagers of today as a tool to separate themselves from the "sluts", even though, given the opportunity, they would probably do the same thing as Miley.
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Excellent
[Read the article: Suing George W. Bush: A bizarre and troubling tale]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I wondered whether this meant that the portion of my brain that remembers the Document is also "derivatively classified," making its presence in my skull unlawful.
Not only was this story enlightening, your writing was also riveting.