Letters to the Editor
molly picon
Published Letters: 55 Editor's Choice: 3
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my few cents, please read!
[Read the article: I'm a small-town girl dreaming of the big-city lights]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Your letter was very interesting- it read as if you were already 40, looking back on your choices and writing them out again, while Kris Kringle or whoever visited George Bailey in Bedford Falls listens sagely. It seems incredible to me that at 25 one can already feel so trapped, yet be so articulate about it. When one writes to Salon with such troubles, one will always be counselled to leave. (It happened to me a couple
of months ago, but the letters chorus also told me I was a spoiled brat- anyway, I've stayed. Oh, sweet love!) You should leave, but I think it's the town and your lack of education you need to focus on leaving as opposed to your fiance. You sound unhappy with him, but I wouldn't dare to judge or assume. But to have stayed in a small town for so long, and feel so hopeless about the future at 25- jesus, this is not necessary. The city can be a big, oppressive, humbling place that will chew you up and spit you out (mine is London), but of course you have to try it. What do you want to do besides trying the cosmopolitan life and making a beautiful family? Do you have any different career goals, or do you want to keep doing what you're doing? Is there something you can only find in the big city that you can't where you are? The answer is yes, but can you name it? For your relationship with your fiance to work you need to be able to discuss these things. If he is right for you, he'll understand this very normal urge to try a new thing. If not, the discussions over the matter might be the end. But focus on the real enemy- it's not him, it's the circumstances, the prison you've set up for yourselves. If you move to the city, you can register at temp agencies, check out the alternative weeklies or even foreign language papers for cheap roommate situations. It will be fun and strange, because you won't know what will happen, and that's when life is interesting.
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on taxes
[Read the article: I'm a jazz pianist, nearly 50, and I need to make some real money!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Do you have an accountant? If you make a 100 bucks at a gig and you only take home fifty, that doesn't sound right. Can't you claim the gas money as an expense? If you're making, say, 25,000 a year as a musician you shouldn't be paying too much more than social security and state tax if you factor in deductions and earned income credit. Anyway, do try the private lessons. You don't have to love children to do it- just love your subject, and be patient with people's mistakes. I suspect the real issue is health insurance- sucks to be American, doesn't it- but there's already been advice on that. I wonder if a steady job teaching music at a private secondary school would get you the insurance- your masters would do fine as a teaching credential, I think. Good luck!
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gunz
[Read the article: Repeal the Second Amendment]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I feel like writing a letter to my congressman. I've only read the first two pages of the letters and I think I get the picture. Fine. You only feel safe if you own a gun. I don't own a gun and I don't feel safe, but I don't want to take care of my feeling of unsafeness by buying a gun. Do I at least have that option? Keep the second amendment. But why, why, why not have a serious, thorough licensing process for people who want to own guns? The argument that criminals will find other ways to arm themselves has a serious flaw: the fact that the crazy shit who killed 33 people legally armed himself DOES make the government, does make us complicit in his actions. I really wouldn't want to have the sale of an efficient killing machine to a mass murdererer on my conscience. It's harder to get a library card than it was for this kid to buy a gun! How can there not be some way to deal with this? How can people turn away from this crude fact? Yes, a person with nefarious plans can find a way to execute them even without a gun to play with. But it would be harder. If he was sitting around in his dorm room making explosives, he might have been spotted. If he was only armed with a knife, I reckon far fewer people would have died, and this would have been a tragedy for fewer people. A background check on this guy would not have been useless- he was in a mental institution, for chrissakes! The campus police had him in their records! If you want to use your gun for legal purposes, like shooting intruders or bunnies, I'm sure the system can incorporate these healthy pursuits, and if the government starts knocking on our doors askin' questions at least y'all will be prepared. Now let's do something other than just vent into the cybervoid.
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the article
[Read the article: At her majesty's pleasure]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Having less than six months on his passport should not have landed him in jail- it should have prevented him from getting on the plane in the first place. Strange that the passport should be a factor.
As for everything else, Kurth is a professional writer. He had a bad experience which in reality and in the way he frames it offers a window to a world many people don't know about. This is a function of prison literature, and in this case it has its political aspect.
Yes, he should have watched himself. I see nothing to indicate he doesn't regret that.
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I cannot believe how seriously you people are taking this
[Read the article: Does sex through fraud constitute rape?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This is the plot of an old Italian comedy. After the woman realizes her error, she will treat her brother-in-law/assailant imperiously, embarrassing him at parties and not so gently destroying his life. Sharp objects may be used.