Letters to the Editor
jebldmm
Published Letters: 933 Editor's Choice: 164
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"Deflated Commander"
[Read the article: On to Iran?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]He does look bad. I'm tempted to be sympathetic. I want to believe that he woke up the day after the elections and realized that things were not the way he had been told, and that he was responsible for fixing them, not Rove. I really want to believe that for the next two years we will have a president who is informed, engaged, and willing to work with people, whether they agree with him or not, to secure Iraq and, for that matter, the "homeland".
Then I remember the video taken before his announcement that the war was beginning. He didn't know that the camera was on, and he appeared relaxed, jovial, happy. He was joking about something. As soon as the cameras were officially turned on, he looked like he does now - serious, as befits a man who is sending thousands of men into a situation that could result in their death and will certainly result in the deaths of many Iraqis. I would really like to see what he looked like just before the cameras were turned on for this speech.
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He died because of ignorance`
[Read the article: Who's to blame for James Kim's death?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Anybody who has spent a lot of time in rural areas knows that many roads are impassable in the winter, and that it is a very bad idea to leave the major highways if you don't know the area intimately. He's not the first person to die because he didn't know the area, and he won't be the last. It's tragic, and I hope that others will learn a lesson - stay on the major highways unless you know exactly where you are and where you are going, and what to expect in between. And, while you're at it, take emergency supplies, including water, food, and blankets, whenever you drive into a snow area. And if you get stranded, stay with the vehicle.
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Take some responsibility for your own emotions
[Read the article: My dad's doing too much creepy hugging]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The part of the letter where the author suggested that he was looking for evidence that his father had abused him really creeped me out. Feelings of anger toward people do not necessarily imply abuse. These feeling could be brought on by a lot of complicated experiences, none of which necessarily imply inappropriate behaviour on the part of the recipient of the anger. But memory is more malleable than we'd like to believe, and if the writer keeps looking for evidence of abuse, he's likely to fine it - whether it happened or not. Take responsibility for your own anger. The question should be "Why am I angry?", not "What has he done to make me angry?". He may not have done anything wrong, or he may have done something to hurt you unintentionally. It's not fair to him to assume that your feelings of anger indicate that he did something harmful to you that you don't remember.
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On the subject of reclining seats
[Read the article: Ask the pilot]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]On our way back from Canada this past holiday season, I sat for 2 hours on a runway while they 1) figured out there was a problem with the plane 2) figured out they couldn't fix it and 3) found a new plane to transfer us to. Although they turned on the nifty new mini tv's on the seat backs so we could be entertained, by the end of the 2 hours I was starting to feel quite claustrophobic. I realized why when we finally got up to get off the plane and the people in front of us un-reclined their seats, which they had automatically reclined when they first got on the plane. Why anybody would recline their seats automatically became clear when we got onto the new plane. They did the same thing, hoping that the flight attendant wouldn't notice that the seats were reclined if all of the seats in the row were even. The flight attendant did, and they had to move them forward for takeoff (they claimed that they were reclined when they first got on and they hadn't been able to move them forward - oddly, the forward mechanism worked fine when the flight attendant was watching). The true irony is that the woman in front of me was about 5' tall and a hundrend pounds (her partner wasn't much bigger), while I am 5'10' and was quite cramped by her desire for more space, but I wouldn't dream of reclining my seat and cramping the person behind me while we were stuck waiting in a plane. It's amazing how a few inconsiderate people can really make flying miserable for the rest of us. I don't know if I'd dare use one of those anti-recliner devices, but I applaud anybody who does.
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This is another "point of view" scandal
[Read the article: Penalty Boxer]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Remember when Kerry brought up Cheney's lesbian daughter, and the right-wingers went wild. In their minds, Kerry had insulted the family of the Vice-President. Most liberals didn't understand the issue - in our minds, this was, at most, a very minor "gotcha". We don't perceive being a lesbian, or having a lesbian daughter, as a particularly bad thing. We simply can't understand why the right-wingers would be so upset about a comment related to homosexuality.
Once again, a liberal unintentionally stepped on a cultural land mine. In the right wing world, not having children is a very bad thing. A childless woman is, at the very least, a subject of pity. A conservative childless woman is a victim of either poor choices or tragedy. Commenting on the barrenness of a childless woman is cruel to the point of being vicious. Liberals tend to assume that a woman who is career-oriented and doesn't have children made a choice in her life and is perfectly happy with that choice, so mentioning that a woman doesn't have children is no big deal. In their minds, Boxer seriously insulted Rice and Kerry seriously insulted Cheney. But we liberals are going to have a very hard time understanding why they feel that way.