Letters to the Editor
Martin Blank
Published Letters: 11 Editor's Choice: 2
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May-December?
[Read the article: May-December romance, or child abuse?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]One of these days I hope to read something intelligent in Broadsheet. There are men languishing, rightfully, in prisons all over the country for sexually abusing a child. When a woman does it, however, we give her a book deal, a spread in People magazine, psychological counseling, and a slap on the wrist. Then we discuss whether we should lower the age of consent? That is absurd. No one would be having this conversation if it were about a 45 year old man having sex with a 14 or 15 year old girl. We would never know his name because the national media would not report it, and, if we did, we would all feel relieved that the guy got what was coming to him under the law. I wish society would wake up and smell the double standard. We let women basically get away with a crime that earns men a bad reputation among their fellow prisoners.
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To Anonymous
[Read the article: May-December romance, or child abuse?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]19 year olds are not arrested for sex with 17 year olds. While the age span for statutory rape depends on the state, the majority have a four year spread between the parties during which is sex is considered consensual. Thus, unlike many implications in this chain of e-mail, a 19 year old will not be prosecuted for having sex with a 17 year old. Most states consider statutory rape to have occurred when the sex is between a person eighteen years or older and a person below the age of 18 AND the minor is four years or younger than the party that has attained the age of majority. Therefore, If a seventeen year old high school senior is dating a fifteen year old sophomore, the relationship does not become illegal on the senior's 18th birthday because the sophomore is only three years younger. 18 and 14, however, would be bad news for the 18 year old.
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Excellent Use of the "Straw Man"
[Read the article: My Southern grandmother is dying, and I don't want to go back]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"You are to be congratulated for extricating yourself from the baffling maze of polite intrigue, manipulation and deadly charm that characterizes many but not all Southern families." You have deeply dissapinted me on this one Cary. Since when did those traits become a peculiar hallmark of Southern families? Someone should write a paper about the extraordinary disparity in mental health between those raised in Southern families and those raised in New Jersey or California where the families are so well-adjusted and healthy. Cary should know better. LW's feeling have nothing to do with the South and everything to do with her family. This letter is a convenient use of the Southern straw man to deflect from the real issue of LW's struggle to come up with a scintilla of compassion it takes to visit an old woman who loved her before she dies. Based on the response from Cary and other readers, LW is using an an inner ruse that it's about all those stereotyped hillbillies down there rather than grandma. The ruse appears to have inexplicably projected itself onto Cary and fellow readers. If it is best for your emotional well-being to stay home, do it, but call a spade a spade, and step away from your superiority high-horse when you do it.
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Larry Craig called, wants his hypocrisy back.
[Read the article: So long, white boy]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If Salon had run a similar article about a political party or candidate failing to make headway with African-American voters, the idea of attaching a photo on par with the worst sorts of racial caricature would never have even occured to the editorial board. That they saw fit to do so for this article is particulalry ironic given the amount of indignant outrage Salon expressed when Bob Corker ran a campaign ad featuring a white woman telling Harold Ford, Jr. to "call me."
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Baby Grumpus
[Read the article: So long, white boy]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I wonder if Baby Grumpus thinks he is better than others and therefore has some right to hate them and wish them erradicated? If so, I wonder if he realizes that he's basically a stupid nazi?
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Baby Grumpus
[Read the article: So long, white boy]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]So, LucilleZ, if Rush Limbuagh or Glenn Beck went on an offensive sterotype-laced tirade about African Americans or Muslims, I guess you would find it hilarious because you're so educated that you know there it's not literal, which presumably makes it harmless.
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Hillary Factor
[Read the article: Giuliani's Christian-right foes to meet again]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Richard Land basically suggested that he, and presumably others, would be unable to vote for Giulliani under any circumstance. I am willing to bet that as those words came out of his mouth, his mind was marking the statement with a mental asterik noting the one circumstance that would trigger his unwavering support for Rudy. That is, of course, the nomination of Hillary Clinton. No other realistic scenario has the potential to so immediately galvanize all elements of the modern Republican party and a very healthy dose of independents into near hero worship of whoever emerges from the sad lot of GOP contenders. As much as I try to resist looking at polling numbers with anything other than deep skepticism, I can't help but be distressed by what appears to be a Clinton nomination slouching toward 2008. We are watching a train wreck in excruciatingly slow motion. If Clinton is the Democratic nominee for 2008, game over. Whoever gets the GOP nomination might as well start putting together his transition team while she makes her acceptance speech at the convention. The scariest part for me is that the Republican nominee will have absolutely no reason to do anything resembling a move toward the center during the general election. Whoever that is, Rudy, Mitt, Ted Nugent, could run on a platform of invading Iran (and maybe Russia), mandatory minimum carbon emissions, prison for advocates of choice, guns in schools, martial law, and abolition of Congress in favor of a president for life. The Chris Matthews of the world will hail that platform as the true expression of American hopes and dreams as Rudy/Mitt/Ted/whoever walks into the White hOuse on a landslide that leaves us dreaming of Mondale.