Letters to the Editor
Published Letters: 36 Editor's Choice: 6
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a bridge to far
[Read the article: First grader suspended for sexual harassment]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I have real problems with the concept of labeling the behavior of a six year old 'sexual harassment'. Assuming that the teacher wasn't overreacting, it's possible that this youngster deserved a timeout for bullying or aggressive bahavior. But no one is served by assigning melodramatic motives to the playground behavior of children, especially not the children.
A child pulling on the pigtails of another child gets severly punished and lectured about the evils of sexual harassment. Does this lead to that child growing up into a sensitive respectful non-harassing human being? Or does it instead lead to fear, mistrust and anger? The child may never pull pig tails again, but they may also decide that the only safe way to avoid that kind of confusing shit storm of punishment and lectures is to just avoid members of the pigtailed gender completely.
Think this wont follow him for the rest of his life? Think this wont effect how he grows up to relate to women? The people punishing him are counting on it, for completely misguided reasons. They're not instilling mutual respect in these children. They're instilling fear, mistrust and victimization.
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3 bland collections
[Read the article: Project Bummer]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Although I agree that Chole is not as talented as Santino or Daniel, of the three collections we saw last night, assuming you didn't know any of the designers, Chloe's simply was the most conhesive, well made and, love it or hate it, the most memorable.
It's almost heartbreaking that they managed to intimidate and harass both Santino and Daniel into abadoning their risky fashion sense, only to condemn them for it in the end. I was so disappointed in particularly Daniel's collection which seemed totally colorless and unoriginal.
In order to keep the final three a secret, it was actually the top four, including Kara, that designed collections and showed at fashion week. I know that Kara has plenty of detractors, I've been one myself on occasion, but I recommend doing a little Internet digging and find pictures of Kara's collection. In my opinion, compared to the three 'top' designers we saw, her collection was great. It was a little out there, a little whimsical, but it was unique, it definately had a "cohesive style", it was colorful and memorable. She had nothing to lose, so she obviously just let herself have fun. It's a shame that the other three didn't do the same. I personally think that a collection like the one Kara showed is the kind of collection that Project Runway should be rewarding.
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"Not Required to See" TV
[Read the article: I Like to Watch]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]People are entitled to their opinion that this show is awful, although I find that most of the people who feel that way have never seen it. For some reason, it's too hard for some people to imagine that a story set in space could be well written and have real world relevence.
A few the topics that BSG has challenged us with: separation of religion and politics, separation of the military and government, terrorism, religious warfare, racism, genetic engineering, election tampering and abortion. The only other place to see issues like this dealt with on a regular basis is the news, and 99% of news organizations out there don't deal with them as head on as BSG does. In fact there are actually times when I almost wish there was a little more escapism in my favorite escapist television watching, but this is the smallest of complaints.
In response to some of the questions raised here: Kara went back to Caprica because she promised Anders she would, and she looooooves him. As for all the questions about population decline, people killed by Cloud 9 exploding, why the cylons came after them, etc etc, I'm guessing those tricky writers intended us to obsess over these questions until next season, which is SEVEN FRACKING MONTHS AWAY, and the only thing I hate about BSG.