Letters to the Editor
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A BookBag??
A friend of mine from Ft. Myers called me last night and asked a simple question. When did you stop carrying your books in a satchel or bag? I said 5th grade. Well, what did you do about them in College, to which I repied - carried them in my arms like the thousands of others. I am nearly the same age as Hillary, which begs the question - is throwing a book bag at the all just another dreamy expression of what she thought she did 40 years ago, an embellishment? An out and out demand for our attention? Look, I lived in Memphis the very day King was shot and I'm here to tell you I wasn't throwing a book or a bag at the wall...I was driving rapidly to my friend's apartment to take cover. We were on fire and bullets and bricks were aflying. I am sorry, but that's just too much for me to believe. A bookbag. What's next - she burned her bra on campus?
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@masaccio
You say: "I fear your poor little heart couldn't bear it if a real left-winger got elected here."
Congratulations - you've joined the considerable ranks of official ObamaSnots.
Rosenkavalier's post was quite straightforward and sincere, and I was about to make a comment on this when I ran into your little screed. My comment was going to be something about being touched by his/her message, seeing as how I'm about 40 years ahead of him/her in age and basically share the same sentiments. The message in question gave me hope that there young people out there thinking for themselves and caring about others, just as we - and that would include Hillary Clinton - did back in the Sixties and Seventies.
I grew up in a Republican household in a small Republican town, wearing matching sweaters and skirts and unaware that there might be something wrong with the fact that, though our public schools were fully integrated, not a single black lived west of the RR tracks, hard by the river. Little did I know that the civil rights struggle and the Vietnam War would shortly transform me into a committed liberal. So, yes, I identify fully with Hillary Clinton's transformation, as it mirrors mine so closely. And yes again, one can be a liberal without being a radical; it's called moderation, otherwise known as the secret of sanity and survival.
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For book bag deniers
I remember having a book bag in grade school, but that was the 70s. It was sort of obvious to me that there were bags called "book bags" in 1968, but I did a search to confirm it. These may not have been the day-pack style I'm familiar with--nor the wheeled airport style lugged about by today's overburdened grade school kids.
Anyway, the remaining doubters will kindly stop smoking their book bags and look it up (NYT 1960).
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30C10FC3F5916738DDDA80A94DB405B808AF1D3
For Paper-Back Textbooks; Weight and Cost of High School Reading Matter Criticized
GERALDINE E. McGAUGHAN.
March 21, 1960, Monday
Page 28, 442 words
TO THE EDITOR OF THE NEW YORK TIMES: Anyone who has attempted to lift a high school pupil's book bag recently must have staggered (and been staggered) under the weight of it. What, in the revered name of education, is he carrying around with him?
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libertyson
Being less likely to vote for Hillary Clinton was the point.
The author apparently did his job well.
The point to keep in mind when voting for a President is not whether we like them or not. The point to keep in mind is if they have the wherewithal to do the job. Do they have a firm grasp on the issues? Do they have strong analytical and critical thinking skills? Do they have the ability to objectively sift through the massive amounts of data, the myriad bits and pieces of information and then be able to see the whole picture... at least as far as possible. Obviously no one can ever see completely as we can never know everything, we can never know the future, we can't even know the next 10 minutes after we make a damn decision... and that is annoying! LOL
I don't care if I like a President. I care if they can actually do the job with competence, strength, and intelligence.
I keep hearing that Barack Obama can unite the country but I never hear to what end.
I keep hearing that Hillary Clinton is too polarizing (Obama has even repeated that piece of right wing propaganda)but the fact is the ones who shout that over and over are the ones who are polarizing, who are creating the myth of Clinton being polarizing. It began with the far right/neocon smear machine and the left has picked it up and ran with it... along with all the other neocon garbage they spread.
Tragic.
In any event... Much as I would like to see a united country I don't really see it being the Presidents job or even within his or her abilities. It is the job of the citizens, who ARE the government, to unite, to stop hatefulness, ugliness, polarizing, marginalizing, rumor mongering and hate mongering. Obviously this is something a candidate cannot do. If he or she could it would be done and we would not be reading the ugly malice that the majority of Obama supporters hurl so generously at Clinton or at anyone who may say a decent thing about her, defend her positions (even if you don't support her) or attempt to correct a mis-perception (or lie)or support her. Nor would you be seeing the unreasoning, illogical, bordering on hysteria attacks on anyone who should utter anything that can be construed as a criticism of Obama, no matter how mild.
Obama's campaign has consistently put forth hope, change, unifying, disagreeing without being disagreeable, bringing back civility as the centerpiece of his platform yet his supporters may be the meanest, nastiest, least civil group of people I have ever encountered. (on line. I have sane and reasonable friends who support Obama and are horrified and ashamed by the hate they read on blogs.)
So if in fact Obama can unite the country where is the evidence of that? I don't see it since those who believe in his platform act in opposition to it. Nor do they advocate for Obama and his campaign promises when they comment, instead they spend every moment hating Hillary.
I, as a voter would like to know what Barack Obama will be uniting the country for... what is the mission, what will he be uniting us around? I haven't heard him say what it is and I haven't heard anyone ask him. (this is, in a sense rhetorical, as I said if the citizens won't get up off their asses and let go of their ugly nothing a President will do can unite the country though I would still like to know what it is.)
Hillary Clinton may not be able to unite the country, in fact she won't be able to because there are so many people invested in keeping her polarized. But, she is a policy wonk who kknows the issues inside and out. If it were possible to listen to her speeches and the questions she asks, or how she puts information together to form the right question with any kind of objectivity you find an adroit and impressive intelligence who knows what is going on. Does she know everything? no. No one does. But even her critics, even those who spent 8 years trying to bring her and her husband down, her now colleagues in the government admit, however grudgingly, that she has a formidable grasp of the issues and what impact different actions might have. Is she always right? No, human being folks.
I like Obama, liked him hugely and supported him for quite awhile but he hasn't answered the question of what he will be uniting the country around... and HOW?
His supporters certainly have not figured it out.