Letters to the Editor
Lobelia
Published Letters: 201 Editor's Choice: 6
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What an education
[Read the article: Thank you, Rush Limbaugh!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm grateful to all the courteous, thoughtful posters here. I've learned a great deal.
One thing that might be worth looking at is the notion of taking offense. I think a lot of the tension between BO and HC camps has to do with a frayed-nerve eagerness to be offended. That leads to vilifying the other, whoever the other is. Racist or sexist terms, hints, innuendos are just tools one uses to try to rouse another to take offense.
Once one takes offense, it's difficult to think clearly. And, once one takes offense, the other wins a point (if you're scoring).
I think maybe the biggest job for an individual is to keep firm control on one's own take-offense reflex. Since there's absolutely nothing one can do to police another's speech, one can only police one's own response.
Somebody wrote that beneath anger is always either hurt or fear. Offense-taking usually results in anger. For me, what's beneath my offended (angry) feelings is actually hurt. Pain.
When I read Randi Rhodes' "comical" remarks about HC (and I'm for BO), I felt that sort of sick pain. When I read Joan's commentary, I felt compassion because I think she feels that same pain. When I read David Sugarman's outburst about Joan needing a buy and a bone...I felt it again. Just as I did as a young girl, when sexism sank in. And as my black friends have felt all their lives, from glances, epithets, subtle slights, etc.
I don't admire Joan's editorial judgment. I think when readers need something that deepens thought and strengthens community, she seems so often to hook like velcro to the surface layers of things. In the big picture of thousands dead and a country near-destroyed, I think taking offense for more than a moment is irresponsible.
When one is morally outraged, it can turn into compassion and clear sight, as in MLK Jr's example. Simply being offended, staying offended, and engaging in tit-for-tat payback is the absence of vision, does nothing to promote courageous action or clear sight.
I am grateful to the many posters here who move past being offended to try to contribute to community.
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It's okay, Sugarman
[Read the article: Thank you, Rush Limbaugh!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]And I'm sorry you got such an ugly email.
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@ AKA Smith
[Read the article: Thank you, Rush Limbaugh!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The sexism came first and is applied to all women and was applied to Hillary Clinton before she even became first lady. Sexism in our culture created much of the negative view that people have about Hillary before Bill ever assumed office.
I agree with you, wholeheartedly. I am still for Obama because of his persona plus, to put it simply, the things he chooses to say.
I lost my fondness for Hillary because of the things she chooses to say.
In my psyche, despite deep feelings about sexism, something about Obama registers a higher note. So I've got to vote it.
Your admirer and fellow UU,
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If they have, Glenn...
[Read the article: Have Republicans given up on FISA and telecom amnesty?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...it's because of your obstinate, relentless refusal to let it go.
Blessings on your curly head.
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A Bit Off-Topic
[Read the article: My last word (for now) on sexism]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm turing 58 in a few weeks...unnerving.
Anybody know a kind, gentle, non-sociopathic single Salon reader with most of his own teeth?
It must be all this sex talk. Oh, sorry, I mean sexism.
They can read my letters to find out who I am.
Lobelia at live dot com.
(Sorry. Bad form, I bet. I expect to be deleted.)
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Bravo to Chagedorn1
[Read the article: Obama and the white working class]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Better stated than I've seen it yet, and it's really time to call in Glenn Greenwald on the subject:
It's his opponents and the media that carve out snippets of his remarks -- and this goes for Senator Clinton and Senator McCain as well -- to create this manufactured outrage. The story is not the truth or untruth of his remarks, or the reality of the situation of our citizens of any ilk, stripe or demographic group. The story is the story of the phony outrage, of media people demanding that people demand apologies, of running ten seconds of "the most likely to be misinterpreted" rhetoric in the midst of a reasoned argument so that someone's point, or career, or life, or personality, is boiled down to the lowest common denominator. The "story" is always the same, not what do people think of the issues, or the state of the world or the country, but what do people think of our cherry-picked for maximum sensationalism coverage
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Young women are smart
[Read the article: Hey, Obama boys: Back off already!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Of COURSE there are toxic levels of unbridled sexism aimed at Hillary. This is just everyday American sexism writ large.
It's saddening, sickening, bankrupt. But hardly unexpected. This culture is completely twisted. Laugh at a sick starlet, loathe a middle-aged candidate...the fear and hatred of the female is the same.
I am thinking many of these young female Obama supporters are smart enough to realize that despite the horrid, unfair stink of sexism that surrounds Hillary...that's no reason to vote for her. The luxury of voting for comeuppance is too costly.
I can admire and support Obama concurrently with being revolted and pained by the extra bile heaped on Hillary because of her gender.
Right now I'm so worried about the future that I can't let my gender trump my humanity.