Letters to the Editor
melthough
Published Letters: 1264 Editor's Choice: 102
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The problem, Brightstar
[Read the article: Is a sex change operation liberating or mutilating?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]is that you don't live in the same REALITY that I do. I choose to be among open-minded people who accept me for who I am. And my larger communities - my town and my state - are likewise open-minded and supportive of the civil rights of all people, including civil unions (unfortunately, not state marriages, but it's a start) for gay couples. That is a choice I make so I don't have to go through the world hating people for wanting me to be something I'm not. I grew up in a racist, sexist, rustbelt KKK haven in Ohio, and I did not leave unscathed - including the still-constant issue of being unable to have any real emotional attachment to my native nuclear family because my chosen culture is my real home and they are still swilling the midwestern farm runoff swampwater. For whatever reason, you choose to live in Texas and hang out with women who, like you, want to be abused by dirtbags. You choose to come to this forum and trash feminists for the actions of non-feminist women who have Done You Wrong. And then people like me, who have refused for YEARS to call you a troll because you consistently post under your real user name and in good faith, try to give you some helpful advice and you tell me to fuck off. I am sorry you have been hurt by idiotic women, but you can't blame half the species for what they did to you. If there is an unhealthy pattern in your life, you have to think about the energy you are putting out in the world that asks other people to treat you like shit. It doesn't mean it is right for them to treat you that way, but you cannot change other people. You CAN make choices and change your own behavior and see what happens. IF you really want to. OR you can wallow in misery, and blame other people for it, and die bitter and unhappy. If you want to do the latter, Ohio would be an nice place for you (and Texas is apparently doing well by you also). But if you want to live a better life, there ARE pockets of our country where people have formed genuniely tolerant communities - safe places for people who don't fit the norm. Maybe you should take a vacation to one of them and enjoy yourself a little instead of blaming half of humanity for your pain. I am really sorry for what has happened to you, but I guarantee that people like me are not part of the problem.
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It's easy to criticize other people
[Read the article: The MSM vs. the blogosphere]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]One of my favorite Simpsons moments:
Marge [in response to Homer heckling the peewee football coach]: Homer, it's easy to criticize other people.
Homer: Yes! And fun, too!
I am glad you take the comments seriously, but I hope you also take into consideration the fact that some people just criticize other people for sport. It's way less risky than actually doing something authentic yourself. The anonymity of the intertubes has made potshots infinitely more fun for impulsive hecklers and infintiely worse for the rest of us. A price we're all willing to pay, of course, but just remember that most of us would be falling on our faces a lot more than you do while feeling our way down the dark, smelly hallways of political journalism.
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A tip for Linney, h0tr0d, healthy skeptic, et al.
[Read the article: Broadsheet is on hiatus]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If you want to be an influential part of the conversation, may I recommend better manners? I like hearing everyone's opinion, regardless of whether I agree with them. But I don't like arrogant, sneering people who call other people names. Regardless of whether I agree with them.
You had something deleted, Canuckistan Bob(bi)? I am surprised, but sometimes they delete milder responses to nasty messages, simply because they don't make sense without the deleted message.
It is a testament to the vigor and energy of this forum that we have 40-some responses to a little post about how Broadseet will be away for a long weekend, hm?
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Why don't people read?
[Read the article: Cheerful boos for Hillary]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Kucinich said:
"Why don't people vote? It's because they don't think there is much of a difference between the two parties."
Saying people perceive no difference and saying there IS no difference are not the same thing. I think I just read Glenn Greenwald this morning talking about this very issue - that Democrats have failed to distinguish themselves from Republicans in the public eye. We elected them to stop the war and restore our liberties, and they continually disappoint us. Even those of us who believe there is a profound difference between the two parties can see that the end result of all this Bush-pandering on the things that matter will be mass hopelessness. At the end of the day, what most people see is that they're all just politicians playing their little games, and hardly any of them seem to believe as deeply as we do in the things that matter.
For my part, I would not go so far as to say that there is no difference between the two parties. It's just that there isn't enough difference to make a difference. Personally, I see that as a natural result of an outmoded system of representation. But if that was part of Kucinich's point, I guess we never got to hear it, because apparently people are still too bitter about Nader 'stealing' the 2000 election to hear a damn thing.
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When do we get the Edwards article?
[Read the article: Cheerful boos for Hillary]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm a pretty devoted reader, and I have seen several features on Hillary and Obama, but the only feature article I've noticed so far on Edwards was an interview with the candidate's wife. There have even been interviews with Richardson, Biden and Lieberman. Will Salon be giving Edwards a chance too?