Letters to the Editor
WashDCMan
Published Letters: 22 Editor's Choice: 1
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Amen, Heather!
[Read the article: Ellen, the dog bullies and me]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]About a year ago, my then fiance (now my wife) and I were walking around the shops of Potomac Yard in Alexandria, VA. In front of the huge Petsmart was a rescue group showing a group of dogs.
We stopped and pet a few dogs, and one in particular really endeared himself to us. After we had exchanged affections with the dog for a few minutes, one of the rescue people asked if we'd be interested in adopting. We told her we might be at some point but that we weren't yet sure we were ready to make that decision. She then suggested we might be able to keep the dog for a while on a trial basis.
This sounded like a great idea. But when one of this woman's fellow "rescuers" heard about it, she quickly said no. No reason, no discussion. "We don't loan out our animals" was all she would say.
My wife and I own our own home and have a decent-sized yard. We both love animals, though we don't yet have any pets. We have no children. One look at us would tell you we are not operating a dog-fighting ring. What possible reason could there have been to turn us away so rudely? The fact is that if we'd been allowed to take care of this dog on a trial basis, it's almost certain we would've become too attached to give him up. And even if we'd decided to give him up, how is that worse than having the dog stay in one of these bitter, self-righteous women's homes? The dog is in a temporary home either way.
It was a major turn-off, and I will tell you that whenever we do decide to adopt a pet, it will be from a high-kill shelter and not from a bunch of sanctimonious, misguided misanthropes.
Should Ellen have read the contract more carefully? Perhaps. But does the punishment fit the crime here? And is it in the best interest of anyone involved? I think not. If shelters like this continue their alienating policies, they are going to find it much more difficult to find adopters.
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Salon should fire this idiot Cary.
[Read the article: My boss says I'm a lesbian but I'm not!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Seriously.
First, he spends half the response talking about himself. (Hey, Cary! No one is interested in you!) But worse, he goes on to imply that this woman asked for this horrible, illegal treatment. He spent three brief sentences (at the end) conceding that this woman's boss should lay off. I wonder if he would suggest that a woman who is raped while walking at night "sent a signal" that she wanted to be victimized.
And to advise her to quit her job--what message does that send? This is America. If an employer harasses you, you don't quit--you sue the motherfucker.
It doesn't matter whether this person is a lesbian or not. What matters is that her boss is humiliating her based on perceived sexual orientation.
I would advise this young lady to keep her job, hire a lawyer who will work on contingency (i.e., they get paid only if they win) and sue that stupid busybody bitch. That'll shut her up.
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Obesity and excess weight are unhealthy.
[Read the article: Live large and prosper]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I have been fat, and I still pack a little extra. But it does overweight people a disservice to promote the delusion that this "body type" is a healthful one by glorifying obesity as Mr. Nimoy has done. Search PubMed for the word "obesity" and you will find report after report showing a strong relationship between excess weight and diabetes, cancer, congestive heart failure, heart attacks, joint degeneration, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and even Alzheimer's disease and psoriasis.
I wish neither Mr. Nimoy nor his subjects any ill. Yet the discussion that results from this kind of art focuses on making fat people feel good emotionally instead of helping them live lives more likely to be free of disease. I would be willing to bet that most of the women he photographed have or will have the above problems at a far greater rate than a physically fit group.
The media and the public have no problem chastising fashion models who become too thin--and that's a good thing. It's in their interest to have a healthy body weight. So why do the media feel diffident about similarly encouraging people on the other end of the spectrum to likewise achieve a healthy weight? Why don't they criticize, say, Mario Batalli or Kathy Bates? Instead we get a Dove campaign with moderately overweight models in their underwear.
This doesn't mean fit people should feel free to tell fat strangers to lose weight (or unhealthily thin people to gain weight). But neither should the media glorify what is in fact an unhealthy lifestyle.