Letters to the Editor

Letters posted here are associated with the following article:
My backroad memorial
My favorite memories of my brother are of him in the driver's seat, tearing down dirt roads. So on nights when I miss him more than I can bear, I just turn up the radio, roll down the windows, and speed.
By Susan Straight [2007-04-09]
The letters thread is now closed.

  • Hey, Sullivan, why you gettin' all pissy with me?

    I never ran into anybody.

    You want to get pissed at somebody - try getting pissed at Laura Bush - who WASN"T paying attention, ran a stop sign, t-boned her high school boyfriend and killed him deader 'n a doornail.

    -- robert lewis
    [Read robert lewis's other letters]
    Monday, April 9, 2007 09:45 PM

  • Lovely piece

    I hope Salon publishes more lovely, evocative essays like this.

    -- Persia
    [Read Persia's other letters]
    Tuesday, April 10, 2007 10:19 AM

  • Let's all be pc and wear helmets

    Fun read.

    Editors' choice post was pathetic, one sided, and moralistic: "The only thing that bothers me is the fact that she still seems to take great joy in driving like a maniac...." wpatterson. Like watching a great film, full of the anguish, joy, regret and ambiguity of the human condition, and then having it end with a politically correct, "moral" resolution. Ugh, save it for Sunday School, please.

    My choices: Anna B and LXguy

    No, it's not nice to hurt people, or animals, or destroy property. Can we think of some people who do that more than fast drivers do?

    We have all forgotten what we really are, and all that we call beauty and joy and ecstacy only means that for one moment we remember that we forgot. GK Chesterton (very roughly paraphrased from memory)

    -- Adams
    [Read Adams's other letters]
    Tuesday, April 10, 2007 10:33 AM

  • What's "PC" got to do with wearing a helmet, Adam?

    Your point is weak. Sure, other activities kill more people and animals than driving fast, but so what? Here's an analogy: oil companies cause vast amounts of water pollution, so does that make it okay for you to pour a can of motor oil into a lake?

    What matters here is that driving too fast down a dark country road presents a completely unnecessary danger to people and animals. If they get smashed by a car, why should they care about the driver's ecstasy? Idiocy is a better word.

    -- Nick44
    [Read Nick44's other letters]
    Tuesday, April 10, 2007 11:38 AM

  • The west vs. the rest of the country

    I posted this essay to a message board. All of the non-Westerners thought Straight was suicidally reckless (one person suggested she needed therapy). All of the current and former Westerners (with the exception of one person from San Francisco) loved the essay and related to Straight. I think if you're not from the West, you Just. Don't. Get. It.

    --Anonymous
    Tuesday, April 10, 2007 11:53 AM

  • This Is a Hard One

    Ms. Straight's memoriam is one of the better things Salon has published lately, but I can't help but point out that the way she remembers her brother to herself is by driving as crazily as he did. Considering she is a single mother of three young children, this is doubly insane.

    Get a grip, Ms. Straight. Celebrate your brother's life by not following him to an early grave, leaving your daughters bereft. Celebrate his life by living to a ripe old age, with grandchildren at your feet.

    -- Rob Anderson
    [Read Rob Anderson's other letters]
    Tuesday, April 10, 2007 06:55 PM

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