Letters to the Editor
Brulette
Published Letters: 40 Editor's Choice: 8
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Try acknowledging, rather than hiding from suffering.
[Read the article: I want to be a veterinarian but not at the expense of animals ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I have an answer for you, LW. Use this opportunity to be strong and make a difference on behalf of the animals whose suffering causes you so much pain. Realize that your pain does nothing to end these animals' plight. You have to be strong for them, witness their suffering and tell the world about it. Even in your letter you don't want to speak of the cruelties. I don't agree with Cary that you don't have blinders, I think you have sensitivity blinders. That might sound anti-intuitive, but consider it like this: your extreme sensitivity causes you to shut down in order to shield yourself from the considerable discomfort and horror you feel. It's time to open your eyes, look into the eyes of these suffering animals and tell the world about it. Write about it. Blog about it. Get the word out. We can never stop shouting out our discontent with the injustices, the cruelties of this world. People don't want to think about the starving children with distended bellies and flies in theirs eyes in developing countries. They don't want to think about the women being brutally and systematically raped in the Congo as a form of gorilla warfare. But we must think of these things, we must talk of these things, we must commiserate in the pain in order to be human beings with conscience and awareness.
This is your time to step forward. To be concrete, is there anything you can do for the farm animals you work with to ease their suffering even in the slightest? Can you touch them or talk to them kindly? Would that be possible? Animals respond to touch and to our tone of voice. Animals respond to compassion- so give these animals some, and instead of running and hiding your head from the horrors, face them, because without people like you, these animals are truly alone, without champions, in their suffering.
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Thanks, Rebecca.
[Read the article: Another pretty face of a generation]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Thank you Rebecca Traister for such a balanced, refreshingly open review of the Gould/SATC phenomenon, and especially for acknowledging the irony with which Gould not only separates herself from the female characters of SATC, but reveils them. There's nothing I hate more than seeing women hate on women. There is already enough of that in the world. Once again someone, Gould in this instance, misses the mark on what I consider to be true feminism: the right to be whatever kind of woman you want to be. After all, that's the freedom that men have. You don't see frat boys worrying that maybe they're setting a vapid, valueless and superficial example for their younger counterparts. You don't see men hang their head in shame for getting caught getting a blow job. Likewise women should not be ashamed for either enjoying SATC for the entertainment, not the dogma, it is. Since when should HBO shows bear the onus of being "groundbreaking" as Gould critisizes?!?! Furthermore, women should not be ashamed for liking fashion, liking things, liking multiple men or wanting a husband. None of those penchants qualify a woman as a blight on womankind. And the women portrayed on SATC? They're fictional, and mostly all women get that. It's women like Gould that despite their supposed female empowering and female positive stance insult the intelligence of womankind with their condescending, contrarian and delusional preaching about how women should be portrayed, and who they should be, and what kind of entertainment they should like if they have a modicum of self-respect. All of that is just as controlling and almost as injurious as the patriarchy that has mired women in comprised positions.
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3 million isn't THAT much. You're young still.
[Read the article: What should we do with our $3 million?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This is a very American thing to say, but 3 million isn't really that much money. You're only 27. If you're lucky, you'll have a long life. So I say invest some of that money wisely. Live off interest. Use some of it for important things like buying a house, etc. If you want to have children, you can maybe think of your legacy, what you'll leave for your children, how this wealth will factor into their lives . . . and it will only be in their lives if you invest wisely.
I'm not saying don't have any fun. I think you two should go to Mexico and be alcoholics for a little while. I go to Mexico each year and am an alcoholic for about a week. It's great. And when I get home I don't want any more tequila. There's really no reason to officially move to Mexico. Why not just go down there and stay for a while. Rent a nice house on the ocean somewhere. I prefer the Yucatan, myself.
While you're down in Mexico getting drunk off your ass and eating amazing seafood and tacos and all that stuff, have some care free, fun and drunken brain storming. Let the thoughts flow.
I think Cary gave some cool advice. The cool kinds of companies that you can start with money like that, the cool kinds of concepts you can explore . . . man, how fun!! If it were me I think I would leave immediately for the south of France where I would take up painting again and start going to wineries and shipping wines home for my brand new huge wine cellar. I would also probably start some kind of restaurant. That's me, though. What do you like? That's what you have to think about while in Mexico getting drunk.