Letters to the Editor
lollypotter
Published Letters: 21
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Read the Letter!!!
[Read the article: Mom's a pothead]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Unbelievable!
Will people just read the god damn letter instead of projecting whatever life experiences they've had onto the LW and her situation!!
I'm not interested in the Great Marijuana Debate so much as a functioning family unit.
Two points which the maj don't seem to want to touch.
1) PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY
The 15 year old is judgmental. WEll, DOH! He's 15! Teenagers and children have strong (and often wrong) views because they lack the life experience to see the shades of grey that life is composed of. Right? Ok. The problem is what the parental response to this should be. Parents clearly shouldn't allow their children to run their lives, BUT THEY SHOULD PUT OUT THEIR CHILDREN FIRST! This is not a contradition!
EXAMPLE: Parents who divorce sometimes KNOW they are doing the right thing, but their children want them to stay together. Bad parenting is staying together cos your children want you to. But terrible parenting is telling your child to fuck off when they come to you with concerns and even anger. Frustration and anger are legitimate emotions and need examining - regardless of the cause, in fact they may need MORE examination if the cause seems tiny or irrational.
The role of a parent is to try and address the issue behind it. Maybe the 15 yr old is afraid his parents will get arrested, maybe he's tried drugs secretly and had a bad experience, maybe he's afraid the mum will turn out an addict, maybe he feels like he is being forced to cover for her and doesn't like lying, maybe there is another problem going on which he is projecting onto this, maybe (seeing his mum everyday unlike us) he thinks something is wrong with her.
OK - So why can't the mum sit with him and EXPLAIN? Tell him she loves and understands but x,y and z etc etc... I'm sorry the greatest sign that she has problems is when she tells him to MOVE OUT!! RED FLAGS! RED FLAGS! Kicking your 15 yr old out is pretty extreme anyway - does anyone understand the reality of life for most runaways? Which parent does that unless they have to! Even parents of drug addicts who are stealing from them and physically abusing them are loathe to do it.
RE the chronic pain: It is VERY RARE to find a child who enjoys seeing their parent in pain and does not want to relieve it. Children of alcoholics pour glasses out for their parents because they want to see 'mommy feel better'. Abused children protect their parents - out of love. It is so IMPROBABLE that (if properly explained) the boy would turn his back that it really makes me wounder what is going on.
Bringing me to my second point
2)ADDICTION
I'm actually shocked at the level of naivety being displayed on this board. YOU CAN BE ADDICTED TO ANYTHING! Once more for the ones at the back - YOU CAN BE ADDICTED TO ANYTHING!! Food, solitaire, jogging, reading, tv, legal painkillers, ANYTHING!! But it's impossible to be addicted to an illegal drug, right? Jesus wept! Is every pot user prepared to swear on their lives that there has never and will never be someone who uses pot irresponsibly? Or that no person who uses it can EVER do anything selfish or wrong? Or even be a bad communicator? Or a less than WONDERFUL parent? Get a grip - You don't even know every pot smoker in you r town, never mind the whole of America. As far as I know they are people too - some good, some bad and some seriously f***ed up. .
Let's say together - SHE'S NOT YOU. SHE'S NOT YOU. SHE'S NOT YOU.
Do people even hear how unbelievably narcissistic their self-righteousness is...
SHE CAN BE IN THE WRONG BECAUSE... SHE'S NOT YOU.
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MerelyMortalMale - unpaid women's work
[Read the article: Katie Roiphe's morning after]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]MerelyMortalMale - I think when people talk about women in poverty or women's work they are talking in the main about the world as a whole - rather than just in America. I think we can both agree that this is fair, given that the US is roughly 300 million and the world pop is roughly 6.6 billion.
Please read this
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/what_we_do/issues/gender/poverty.htm
So a disproportionate amount of the world's poor are women. I think we can all agree this is true, and also agree that gender is an important tool for analyzing poverty and extreme poverty.
In the US a disproportionate amount of poor hourseholds are headed by a single female. I think that, regardless of our final conclusion, gender needs to come into our analysis to gain a full picture of causes/conditions/solutions.
Fair?
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Not sure
[Read the article: Is Jeri Kehn Thompson too hot for the White House?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm not sure where I stand on this issue. I do agree that family life is an important facet of professional politics, it seems disingenous to state otherwise. Both parties do it. Thus as family life includes spouses, it may be a little pointless to cry sexism. Either personal decisions count or they don't. If they do then who Fred Thomson sleeps with is actually fair game.
On the other hand it does seem unfair that just being younger and quite pretty is enough to crucify her. She is probably a very intelligent woman and is happy with her husband.
That said as much as I try I CANNOT like it. Something about it makes me skin crawl; probably because she LOOKS so young. I think I didn't realise until now how much I admire Clinton (and Bush as well!) for their relationship choices. Their wives ARE their equals and instinctively I think we all respect that. This SEEMS like another rich man willing to buy the services of a dumb bonde on his arm. We don't know what it is cos we don't know them. I have no opinion on her but I honestly like him less now that I've seen his wife. It's a gut reaction which I suspect a lot of voters will succumb to.