Letters to the Editor
ER
Published Letters: 24 Editor's Choice: 4
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The Salon hand-wringers moan again
[Read the article: We'll go no more a-Rove-ing]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]There's a perverse disconnect between you - the Salon hand-wringers - and the true rest (or red) of the country. I'm constantly amazed at daily 100's of letters on every article claiming millions of voters were "duped" or "cheated" by Rove, Bush, Cheney, blah blah. The smell of arrogance overpowers; you - YOU somehow had it right each election, and the rest of the country had it so wrong?
Get in your goddamn car, drive to some medium or small town that begins with your favorite letter. Stop at a restaurant and sit at the counter and start a conversation with the person next to you. Ask them about guns, God, abortion, gays; if you're brave you can try to change their mind on any of it.
Folks - those Republican votes don't come from software genius machine hackers. And I'll tell you - nobody from G-H-I-whatever-town likes to hear that they're stupid, misled or otherwise unaware. You want to get someone with integrity and intelligence into office? Fucking find your country.
ER
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A loss, but good riddance given the times
[Read the article: Farewell, Bat Boy]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Thanks for your article; I guess I'm left a little let down after reading your words. Sort of like when the WWN changed Ed Anger from a Ted-Nugent type over-the-top conservative nutcase to a sort of liberal smirker; I think you all were trying to be too clever for your own good.
Hey, times change; the WWN changed. I never went for the newer stuff you & the later staff did - the puns & turns of phrase. You didn't invent Batboy - an earlier person did - as well as the aliens backing Bill Clinton, monster rabbits, babies smuggled out of the country inside WATERMELONS(!!!) -- that was genius absurdity. I always appreciated the quotes in the articles from "a famous scientist in Sweden says that..." or other misplaced unattributable statements. Plus - a scientist 'quoted' was often the same photo of the same delusional guy - often two pix of him in the same issue for different articles; sweet! You call it right in your article when you mention our current media gets perilously close to the same kind of crap.
So Goodbye to you all, I think the WWN was a surprising success of creativity for years. Your recent years dropped way off on the laugh scale (or, tear-off-and-post-at-work-scale), but hey, look at where the US is now. Not so much to laugh or imagine about these days.
ER
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So what are YOU going to do, Gary?
[Read the article: Breaking the Iraq stalemate]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Very aware article, Gary. But actually, aren't you (& I) part of the problem you illustrate? I mean, how BAD do you care about this? Enough to jump in with a group that wants a coup d'etat? Enough to makes demands on your congresspeople - including campaigning actively against them? Enough to park your car mid-Golden Gate and start announcing and ruffling feathers? or just enough to bitch in print - though eloquently - to the bobbleheads, tipping their chins up & down?
If you do a search on the word "powerlessness" you get a huge number of hits about hippies and other dipossessed during the 60's. We now (though with perhaps less art, music and cultural self-examination) ARE the same as the disenfranchised from 45 years ago. Our votes, our politicians, our country directions seem wrong, and we can't do jack. Interestingly, another match riding alongside 'powerlessness' in google is severe depression.
You paint a correct, albeit dismal picture of the state of the US. Uncharacteristically I participated in a phone survey tonight (along with powerlessness comes apathy - so I didn't bother hanging up), and the interviewer confessed that the people she had talked to all day were just mouthing truisms; no one listened to the questions, no one cared about their answers. Some stupid, other smart folks. You have the country pegged.
So I guess I have to, on my intellectual side, congratulate you on a nice article. But I also condemn you for your lack of imagination on our repair. You & I & ALL of Salon has been sitting on the sidelines wringing our hands in the shadow of W, the disgrace of the 43 presidents. That web article with the picture of a kid at his soldier father's funeral left me on the 0% hope meter.
ER
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Whine, whine. How bad do you really care about this?
[Read the article: How the Democrats blew it]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Wow Gary - you've gotten me to write about your articles more than once; nice rhetoric! Now please use your skills to evacuate the HR of current democrats. You're a bay area person right? Congresspeople Pelosi, Anna Eshoo, etc. - these people represent the wealthy left, which is, essentially, the right. Come on - San Francisco, Palo Alto, Kensington, Saratoga, Monte Sereno -- these people litter the Salon pages with their umbrage against Bush, but fill Pelosi's (etc.) war chest at champaign parties.
There *IS* a primary. Take these people out of the equation with your vote. I always liked sort-of libertarian Tom Campbell (R) - what ever happened to him? Mike Honda (D - San Jose) seems less repulsive than the rest, but where's HIS call for impeachment?
Yeah, this is an impotent email to an online 'zine that all but guaranteed Kerry was going to win with their wishful and specious editorials. But hey - $1000 of anti-Eshoo Kinkos signs 'magically' appearing in Los Gatos around election time might just show up; where are YOU going to be at primary time??
ER