Letters to the Editor
DogWhisperer
Published Letters: 5
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Why do I need to escape Christmas?
[Read the article: It's not a wonderful life]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]My expectations are that people I care about will make an effort to get together. That someone (or several people) will put together a good meal. That if I'm engaged in a conversation and one of my dogs needs to go out, someone will let her. Do I really expect that Christmas is supposed to be either "Miracle on 34th Street" or "It's a Wonderful Life"? BTW, I love both films, but they are films that I take as reminders to have hope and belief in something that's not under my control. (Oops. I guess control freaks will wonder what the heck THAT could be.) I don't go to church. Mom does. Am I supposed to put her down? Or is she supposed to put ME down? I light the wreath on my porch just to be of good cheer, and it cheers me, whether it cheers my neighbors or not. So what is the point of this article? If I LIKE sentimental crap, I'm stupid? If I have annoying relatives that I don't shout down or walk out on, I'm a fool? What exactly IS the point other than to suggest that "sensible" people need to find alternatives to the Christmas crap. What I need to find an alternative to is cynicism and commercialism. And this article plays into both. I'm supposed to find myself smarmily alone watching anti-chirpy things on television instead of having a life.
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The Whine Cellar
[Read the article: Porn free]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]There's a lot of validity to what was said. Yes, porn stars do have the right to move on. And yes, being in the military and pursuing an Ivy League graduate degree are both admirable. As a gay guy, I also served in the military AND got an Ivy League degree. I didn't come to think that that gave me some sort of "pass," however. It is with gratitude that I accept that as my life unfolded, I wasn't held to account for everything I did wrong, but I think most lives unfold that way. Life is generous to youthful stupidity. But in the second "third" of a life, it comes across as very whiney to complain that after you deliberately engaged in porn films, and then deliberately put yourself in the public sphere, mean people actually have the nerve to call attention to your life as you lived it. If Sanchez thought there were "passes" in the public sphere, he was mistaken. (Oddly enough, he says he knew that, but still whines about it. Hey, I did it, but I've moved on from that, so it shouldn't "count"). One might wish the same blessing on everyone who deliberately enters the public sphere, but it just isn't so, unfortunately. It is important to note that he was not "outed" from some private level. He very deliberately entered the public sphere.
Can gay men and women be conservative politically? Of course. Can gay men and women indulge in being openly sexual human beings? Of course. Can you be a gay porn star and a social conservative? Well, it takes more than whining about liberals to reconcile those roles, but in the end, of coruse. The damn liberals brought up his past, and it's not convenient, and he's feeling like a "victim" of his political views. Victimhood is the NEW "last refuge of a scoundrel."
Now, is there substance to his original claim that there is an anti-military bias at Columbia? He has not paid attention to that, except in passing. If THAT is what his point is, let him make it, if he can. But he spent most of his time lately whining about the damn liberals who exposed his past.
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As for symbolic dollar amounts....
[Read the article: Why stop at $9.11 when you could ask for $911?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]why not $1.11... the number of days Guiliani was mayor after 9/11/01? Or maybe the number of hours he actually spent at Ground Zero while mayor? I've heard various accounts... none of which would fill his campaign coffers.
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Timbre of voices
[Read the article: Campaigning while female]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I read the article with great interest and largely agree. However, I grew up with a mother, a sister, three grandmothers and a great grandmother (not to speak of my father, grandfather, great grandfather, and a slew of uncles), and never thought of the timbre of those women's voices as anything but comforting. The idea (admittedly a minor one in your article) that somehow Hillary's laugh is unfairly compared with men is off focus. Her laugh DOES often come across as forced, and therefore "fake," in my estimation, not inviting and warm and engaging, as I usually find the timbre of female voices. In an otherwise excellent article on dual standards, that struck a jarring chord with me. As a generalization, it just doesn't hold up (IMHO), and as a defense of Hillary's laugh... well, it would probably have been better left unsaid.
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Two comments
[Read the article: Racism on the trail]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]COMMENT ON THIS PART: "Mike Madden ... mentions one voter in West Virginia who said his neighbors 'won't go for a black man... I don't think it's being racist necessarily, they just don't like black people that well.'"
If you don't like someone, won't vote for someone, because of the color of their skin, and that's NOT racist, then what IS racist?
COMMENT ON THIS PART: "The Post story does lack some context, though.... Sometimes, for all we know, they could even be just jerky kids out to prove they're big by saying something shocking and stupid, rather than truly representative of feelings in their larger community."
My take on the Post story was that it was largely about young people taking on a cause and encountering some harsh and unexpected reactions along racial lines. I did not see anywhere in the story a suggestion that these experiences were representative of the larger community or the nation as a whole OR that the individuals mentioned in the story did that either. What's the problem with reporting about people's experiences simply as events that occurred? Why does it have to be suggested that the story fails to achieve something it didn't set out to achieve?