Letters to the Editor
wire0monkey
Published Letters: 195 Editor's Choice: 6
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Pshaw
[Read the article: Our cupboard was bare]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"after all, spouses leave and people get divorced; better not risk it), "squandering" money on secure, decent quality child care (just get the senile old lady down the street to look in on the little ones from time to time!), you can breathe a big sigh of relief and say, "See? That could never happen to ME. I'm smart! I'm frugal! I'm not lazy!""
First of all, poverty DID happen to me. I have no illusions on that score. It sucks.
Secondly, I never said leave a 9 year old, a 7 year old and a 3 year old alone with a neighbor checking on them. I stated that I would explore several other possibilities, but NONE of them involved staying home alone.
What I said is faced with these choices (enough food vs. $1800 a month child care), I'd make a different choice about the $1800 a month childcare.
The inability to make these choices -- the sheer foot-stomping, fit-throwing wail of middle class entitlement "IT'S NOT FAIR! I DON'T WANNA CHOOSE!" of your comment is ridiculous.
When you don't have enough money for everything, you have to choose.
The author may decided that the childcare situation is more important to her then the embarrassment of going to the food pantry/food kitchen. That's a reasonable choice.
What's not reasonable is expecting that a divorced mom working as a secretary can have it all and isn't going to face hard times. This isn't caused by the recession. It's not caused by the Bush Administration. It's just life. Get over it.
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@ehillesum
[Read the article: Who will save public schools? ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The destruction of the African American family is one of the fruits of drug prohibition. If you want to help the African American family legalize the drug trade.
Prohibition turns poor neighborhoods into drug markets prone to high crime. It puts too many African American young men in jail at a time when they should be settling down, starting families and getting careers. It places the remaining young men in high demand so that they can act any way they like towards the young women who date them because if one young woman won't put up with their outrageous irresponsible behavior, there's always another one who will.
The first step to healing poor neighborhoods in America is to legalize the drug trade.
Of course, social conservatives like you (despite paying lip service to concepts like personal responsibility and freedom of choice) won't allow that.
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It's the model, dummy
[Read the article: Who will save public schools? ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I won't send my kids to public schools, or to private schools that follow a public school teaching model. These teaching methods were designed to teach lower class and middle class children to be "good workers" - clean, obedient and docile. Too much time is spent in conventional class rooms teaching children to be quiet and to sit still. Kids who won't get with that program are too often labeled as ADHD and drugged. It's especially devastating for gifted children and creative children, who respond poorly to being taught in groups at the pace of the most average child in the class.
A few instruments and extra enrichment classes aren't really going to correct the fundamental flaw in the model.
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Change the channel
[Read the article: Memo to NBC gymnastics commentators: Shut up!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If NBC is not showing what you want to see, try USA or one of the other alternative channels.
I've seen indoor cycling, handball, rowing, equestrian, fencing, soccer, softball, and trampoline by changing the channel.
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Actually
[Read the article: In defense of race-based rooting]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I love the Olympics because it highlights how diversity is a strength for the USA. These are some of the people that have contributed to the USA's medal count: an immigrant Russian girl (gymnast), a white teenage girl from Iowa(gymnast), an African American runner from East St. Louis, a white Yale graduate (women's sabre), a white community college graduate (women's sabre -- she's attending a 4 year school now), an African American swimmer, an Asian American guy from California (gymnast), an Indian American guy from Houston (gymnast)... the list goes on and on.
Our best athletes come from every imaginable background. I root for them all.
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subterraneanne
[Read the article: Does air conditioning make people vote Republican?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Just a shout out...
I grew up in Granite City.
Your dad was right, btw. I've been on a safety inspection at the coke plant at the mill in July. You don't know hot... They're building the new coke plant to capture the waste heat and use it to generate electricity. It's not green, exactly, but it's greener.
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your choice
[Read the article: My husband's an alcoholic but doesn't think he has a problem]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Stay or go. It's your choice. It doesn't matter what you choose, though, because there's one fact that won't change: he's a drunk, he doesn't want to quit drinking, and you can't make him quit drinking. When you get your head around that, you can plan your life.
If you decide to stay, stop making plans with him. If you make plans, feel free to invite him along, but don't count on him showing up. If he doesn't show, just go on with your life. Don't make any plans that revolve around him. Don't manage the results of his drinking, either. If he screws up, let him clean it up. Don't lie for him. Don't pick up the slack when he misses a responsibility. Don't apologize for him. Tell him ONCE that this is the way it's going to be and implement it.
You can just leave, too. In a lot of ways, that's easier.
Say it with me: "Honey,, I think you're an alcoholic and you're killing yourself and wrecking your life. That's your problem, though, not mine. I'm not going to clean up after you anymore, and I'm not going to wait for you to change. You can quit or not. I don't care. I'm going to get on with my life."
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Poor mom
[Read the article: My mom left my dad in a nursing home and lied about his chances of coming home]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Maybe she just couldn't stand to take his hope away from him. She lied to avoid telling him that he had no reason to hope.