Letters to the Editor
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Obtuse readers?
As an occasional provocateur and performer of "street theater" myself, I hope Garrison Keillor doesn't have a predilection for looking over his shoulder to see whether the consumers of this art have completely understood him. You see, what is important to an artist of this sort is making people think about what you just said, or did, or showed them.
I am instead rather amazed that no one, at least among the letter writers, seems to have gotten the point that in his hyperbolic title, he is not saying that we should ignore Imus, but that our outrage should also be focused on what Bush and his entourage have foisted upon us, and all with, if not our willing approval, then our acquiescence.
Seamlessly, and without apparent conscience, the mainstream pundits are now starting to take a harsh look at Bush and what he and Cheney have done with our country, and not, not, apologizing for their commander codpiece fantasies while Bush was strutting around that aircraft carrier, in a parachute harness no less, which, when worn properly is very uncomfortable, and what else? Carrying his helmet with him everywhere he went. (Oh, be still, my beating heart!)
I agree with the other writers that what Imus and his ilk purvey is the lowest common denominator of intimacy between strangers, and he won't be the last. Not, at least, until we drive the bastards out of their houses into the street (all figuratively, of course) and ride them out of town on a rail. This is not "political correctness" to deride and rebuff these scoundrels, but the absolute necessity of a people to take care that the least among them has, at the minimum, the good will of their fellow citizens to protect them, and to reject the dehumanization of someone you might actually like if you knew them.
Larry Flynt, in commenting on the recent death of Jerry Falwell said the other day, "My mother always told me that no matter how much you dislike a person, when you meet them face to face you will find characteristics about them that you like."
Gooolleeee, if Larry Flynt can do it, doesn't it make you feel small when you can't even try?
Thanks, Garrison.
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Thank You Mr. Garrison Keillor
Like Milarepa, I too delight in Garrison Keillor's marvelous words, but no less than I do in the rough and tumble diction that characterizes American dialects --or any dialect for that matter. In fact, one needn't go to "Bud's Lounge" to hear this sort of colorful language; it abounds even at family barbecues and picnics and it is most often used between friends. Geared to engage the passions as opposed to the intellect, dialects typically abound in spectacularly ironic and metaphoric tropes. Utterly idiomatic and always countercultural, they are easily misinterpreted by outsiders. As far as Don Imus's comment goes, he may as well have called those Rutgers girls American beauties, for that is exactly what he meant and everybody knows it; what hypocritical nonsense to fire him over a trope! And to have lost a talk show that brought home the news in such a revealing, up close and personal manner that is nothing if not semper fi as is Mr. Don Imus, that is unforgivable. To be sure, it takes a people to own a dialect. Too bad we're not there yet.
Venisha Zara
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Prairie Mutt Is Still On The Air
Sometimes it is just plain difficult to rid the world of vulgar, talentless, hacks. No matter how many ridiculous ideas, one-sided smears, and just plain mean-spirited sentiments they spew they still find enough of an audience to stay in the public eye.
Prairie Mutt is still out there.
Okay, I hear you saying "wait, it's not really a found audience as much as a subsidized one", and I won't disagree. What, after all, is our Prairie Mutt GK without the public funds to support his combination of witless attempts at humor and one-sided political vitriol? Why, he is unemployed, of course. But this is America.
In America, where you can find plenty of media outlets for a "loathing of the right" orgy, Prairie Mutts don't have to be funny, accurate, or insightful - just vulgar and able to spit venom at the right.
On this day when our most classless ex-president is spouting off about Blair & Bush, it is perfect to find his spiritual equal GK spouting off about - why - the same thing! What a coincidence. Carter was not only a miserable president, he doesn't even have the grace to shut up about current White House occupants - as every decent ex-president has done (except Clinton & Carter, gee, vulgar runs in prairie mutt packs).
Imus, Howard, Prairie Mutt, Carter - these are second rate con men with little to say and not much talent to say it with (OK, sorry Howard, you actually can be funny). I am not offended they are out there - just sorry that certain Prairie Mutts are still listened to on the public dime.
Lasting damage? Man, Lake Woebegone is in the running.
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GK
Thanks once again for a good piece of writing and one that makes me feel a little bit better by giving hope. But as you say hope springs eternal.
Thanks once again.
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Someone HAS stepped up to throw the pie in the Republican Party
His party is coming to see that it must figure out how to tell the truth about him if it is to compete in 2008, but so far nobody has stepped forward and wound up to throw the pie. Their clock is stuck in the fall of 2001. They are sleepwalking toward the precipice.
Ron Paul has stepped up. His courageous actions thus far in his presidential campaign have infuriated the neoconservatives who rightfully see him as a real threat to their power. He threw pie into Republican conventional wisdom in the South Carolina debate by speaking the truth about our foreign policy that no Democrat dares speak of for fear of being labeled as soft on terror.
While his libertarian views on government may not agree with many readers of this website, I urge you to support Ron Paul. He is proof that you can be pro-free markets and pro-small government without being pro-War and pro-Big Business. The Democrats may indeed win the White House back in 2008. However, the neoconservatives will continue to dominate the Republican party and will relish the opportunity to take back the power at the first sign of the Democrats faltering.
Supporting the message of Ron Paul will cause other free market and small government types to have the dense fog of neoconservatism lifted from them. Wouldn't you rather fight with Republicans over Social Security and Education than invading foreign countries over the guise of patriotism?
Support Ron Paul in 2008.