Letters to the Editor
nancyh
Published Letters: 155 Editor's Choice: 5
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I think we are ready
[Read the article: Obama's faith in the reasoning abilities of the American public]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I live in one of the reddest of red states. KS has voted for exactly 2 democratic presidents.
If you had asked me a year ago if sincerity and intelligent discourse could beat rabid rhetoric, I would have laughed until I wet my pants. But, then there was an election in which a little known Dem., Nancy Boyda beat a 6 term Rep Jim Ryan (of the I ran in two Olymics, Jim Ryan). Although she was certainly helped by the anti-Repub setiment, I think her victory was also in part because she did not spew negativity, she did not rant and rave, and eschewed nasty commercials. The only one she aired showed her sitting down for coffee with a bunch of farmers. It was unslick and not nasty. I thought she was doomed. But in the end, reason won the day. I think and hope this will be the case with Obama too.
For those of you who criticize him for not disowning Rev. Wright or leaving that church, I think you need to do some soul searching. How many of your friends and family make racist comments? Mine do. So do his. It is nice to hear someone deal with that frankly. In case you missed the entire message of the speech it was that we are all sinners and that the best way to deal with this issue is with compassion and understanding.
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Lets hear it for the neocortex
[Read the article: Screw all this, I'm marrying a flatworm]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Humans have more of it than any other species. This differentiates us from other species most strikingly in terms of language, but also in our abilities to among other things plan, organize, delay gratification, think critically about our own thoughts, and focus on abstractions as behavioral goals (yes, I know that there is evidence for this level of cognitition in Bonobos, dolphins, elephants, but to a far lesser extent).
My point is that our cognitive flexability permits us to decide whether we WANT to act on the types of urges that are part of our evolutionary history. It is not either or, it is always both.
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not too disheartened
[Read the article: I'm no bigot, but you should meet my buddies]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I skimmed the polling data and I am not so downhearted. So, 30-45% of Americans aren't ready for a person of color or woman to be president-yes that is sad. But, I think some of the assumptions here are false AND we should think more critically about the demographics.
a) Depending on where you live, it is entirely possible that you could be a raging liberal and yet most people you know would not vote for an AF AM/Woman. If I still lived in the community where I grew up, that could be true for me. So, I question the premise that these numbers accurately attenuate social desirability.
b) The more fundamental question here is who are the people who responded to the poll. No data are given on the age of respondents. I would expect that the data are gathered by some sort of stratified random sampling (stratification based on race). But, we don't know the age of the respondants and unless they made a concerted effort to collect data from an age-diverse sample, one can assume that these data skew-older. Older folks are a) more likely to be home during the day and b) Less likely to screen their phone calls. So, it may be more accurate to say that these data are more likely to reflect the views of older Americans-who tend to have held onto more racist and sexist views of the world.
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. . . But it was magic pussy!!!
[Read the article: Is your vagina magic?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This sounds like what you say when your frieds say "you paid how much for that!!??"
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more than one flavor of feminist
[Read the article: Single mothers are ruining society!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I did not totally disagree with Yoffe. Yes, the "shaming" comment is over the top. But, I must say that I am disheartened by the large number of unplanned pregnancies and have two basic concerns.
Concern #1: Parenting is hard/exhausting work.My husband and I have an active, healthy 5-year old and we often comment that we don't know how single parents do it. Being able to tag-team makes life so much easier. Honestly, life would be better if we hadn't moved from communal living (or at least living multigenerationally) to the nuclear family/single family home.
In terms of parenting, I think it is a numbers game. More is usually better (with the obvious caveats that no one is abusing/molesting children). My concern with single parenthood is not based on moral judgement or condemnation of sexual activity, but that it is not terribly practical.
#2 Re point #1-only true when the cast of characters is stable. In my observation, one of the big problems with single parenthood is that most people don't really want to be single parents or at least give up sex. Single people date. Typically, you date a lot of people before you find someone with whom you want a relationship. If you are childless, this is probably a good thing. When you have a kid, it becomes a) much more difficult to find the time/energy b) creates opportunity for heartbreak for heartbreak for the child. Small children attach easily and it is confusing for them when the boyfriend/girlfriend with whom they have formed a relationship is not around anymore. c) Sometimes BF/GF are not suitable parent figures. It seems like I see a CNN headline once a week that describes some horrible form of child abuse committed by a BF or GF.
Again, this isn't an issue of moralizing (although, damn-use birthcontrol EVERYONE), it is an issue of practicality and what is best for kids.