Letters to the Editor
KR
Published Letters: 93 Editor's Choice: 18
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Isn't it ironic....
[Read the article: Reporting for duty]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I think it's interesting how it's 'outsiders' who seem to be successful speaking their mind in our current political system. But once they need to build a warchest to actually get elected, the intelligent people seem to have to prostitute themselves and their ideas/ideals to raise enough $$$ to survive the election cycle. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for Paul Hackett, and hope he can afford to continue to speak so plainly.
Consider Newt Gingrich and Al Gore. Once they left the Machiavellian cesspool which is United States partisan politics, they seemed to reengage a portion of themselves that could not be loosed while they were in political office - In Newt's case, he has some interesting ideas about health care, which he can state without hyperbole now that his job isn't flogging the Republican party line, regardless of the intelligence of the content. Gore found his voice (and his balls) speaking about both the environment AND the state of American politics once he was no longer inside 'the system' and could speak his own mind.
Wouldn't it be great if our politicians could actually use their brains, speak their minds! while they're IN OFFICE?
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Krispin.
[Read the article: Aw]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]He/she just looks like a Krispin to me.
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I did not interpert Anonymous's comment as a diss on education -
[Read the article: Why can't my mother accept my bisexuality?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...simply a statement that, sometimes, the education that a parent toiled to ensure you receive ends up being the very thing that creates a rift between you.
This is a fascinating area of exploration, one that has had an immediate and visceral effect on my life. I highly recommend Alfred Lubrano's "Limbo: Blue Collar Roots, White Collar Dreams." In this book, he interviews folks whom he calls "straddlers" who grew up in blue collar homes/families but now have white collar jobs/lives. Most of these folks have struggled with identity and family relationship issues, particularly with parents.
-- A fellow Straddler
P.S. Interesting how this topic also factors into the kerfluffle on other areas of the Salon boards re: parents who satisfy their child's every material wish, and the entitled brats these children may become. One white-collar Straddler interviewed in "Limbo" said something to the effect of, "I don't want my kids to grow up to be the obnoxious rich kids I disliked so much when I was growing up."
And then these entitled, high-maintenance kids enter the workforce, creating a manager's nightmare. But that's another story.
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You are as beautiful and interesting as YOU think you are.
[Read the article: Help! I'm getting older!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I won't regurgitate what previous letters have said - but I'd like to suggest that you are as beautiful and interesting as YOU think you are.
Consider this alone-time as the precious gift that it is. Use it. Submerge yourself in your interests. Revel in pleasing no one but yourself. Take classes and workshops on obscure or esoteric subjects. Treat yourself to dessert and a great cup of coffee at that little shop on the corner of a neighborhood you've always wanted to explore, but never found the time. Continue to take care of yourself, both for your health and self esteem.
As you're pursuing your interests you will likely come into contact with people who have similar interests, who are passionate about what you are passionate about. Make new friends. You get the point.
Don't worry so much about finding a man or being alone. Being alone can be really great! Frame it as something positive, not a fate worse than death. If you're happy - truly content - with your own company, you might find that a partner is simply icing on an already tasty cake.
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Hypocrites
[Read the article: The Fix]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I am in awe of the sheer sanctimonious balls of the collective sports media.
Bode Miller is an adult. It is not his job to serve as a role model for anyone. It is not his job to meet your preconceived notions of how an elite athlete is 'supposed to act.' It is entirely his choice to take the risks he is taking, and to experience any fallout that might result from those risks. If you're so concerned or disapproving about his behavior or statements, DON'T WRITE ABOUT IT. But then that wouldn't fill your column inches or help you meet your deadline now, would it. Hypocrites.
I have to say that, in a time when an elite 16 year old figure skater's training regiment includes media relations - and produces interviews about as interesting as that of a household robot - I find Bode Miller's unbridled mouth and uncensored communication to be very refreshing.
And don't get me started on the soft focus, sob-story crap that suffices as American Olympic TV coverage.
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Bode: This wouldn't be a story...
[Read the article: The Fix]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]... if the American media could find a way to 'package' elite athletes' stories for our consumption using some complexity and nuance, without painting the athletes' characters black or white, good or bad using some sob-story cliche.
I was so happy to see former speed skater Dan Jantzen very politely take an NBC TV analyst to task a couple of days ago - saying something to the effect of, 'don't push a mike into every American athlete's face after a race and ask them how they're feeling because they didn't win the gold. Not everyone is here to win the gold. One athlete's personal best may place them no better than Top Ten - and placing Top Ten may be the proudest achievement of that athlete's life.'
Bode doesn't play by the media's rules. They don't quite know what do with him, which 'preconceived media notion' box to slot him in. News alert: he's just a guy - a guy with some extraordinary skills. So, today he's wearing the media's black cowboy hat because he was only the FIFTH best skiier in the world today. Out of the medals by less than the amount of time it takes to quickly breathe in and out. Yeah, no pressure at all.
I'd be hoisting a beer too.