Letters to the Editor
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From Joan Walsh
lateagain, you're actually one of my favorite posters, and this was a really wonderful post. But I wasn't feeling sad about what the letters said about me, but what they said about this race. I think about all of this more than most of you (but maybe not you personally) will ever know. I think the tribalism, to use your word, is lamentable, but also real. When I was getting down on these letters over the weekend, I also reminded myself: You wanted to have a conversation on race? Well, there it is, baby! It ain't pretty, but actually, a lot of good things have come of it. There are some great letter writers in both camps who are really baring their souls, their biases, their backgrounds, their political analyses. Some fervent Clinton and Obama supporters talk to one another, stil, with respect, even affection. On balance, given how ugly it is (and it is ugly, the history of race in this country is ugly), we might be proud of ourselves when this is over.
Geraldine Ferraro comes up a lot in these threads. I was on vacation, folks. My daughter is a senior in high school; we took a long-planned week's vacation in Arizona, watching spring training, as we've done every year since 1996. I've written about it often. When she was in 7th grade, I promised her we'd spend a week her senior year, and we did. Right before that, I went to the PolicyLink conference in New Orleans, and I cut into my official vacation (poor me! working in New Orleans!) to write about it, and then I went silent. I truly thought I had said that publicly. But if you go back, I wasn't selectively ignoring Ferraro, I was resoundingly quiet. (Although my best friends, all Obama supporters, made me talk about it non-stop on vacation). I admit: I did choose not to weigh in on Geraldine Ferraro from my vacation. I love my job, but not that much.
Thanks for asking!