From You
Letters
From You!
A Friendly Exchange
originally published September 27, 2006
Pete: I just read your article on the definition of “progressives” [Pub Notes, Sept. 20]. Frankly, while most of what you described would reflect a “progressive” agenda, I thought one aspect was not only ridiculous, it represented exactly why the “progressive” movement in Athens is faltering.
I do not believe that anyone who knows me would characterize me as anything short of full bore liberal, which I gather you would equate in general with “progressive.” The “problem” for us liberals from the standpoint of your definition begins with, “You live in a neighborhood or know somebody who does and believe that neighborhoods, rather than condos or gated developments, are the basic units of our community and should be protected from encroachment by roads, hospitals, subdivisions and students.” “Encroachment” on neighborhoods by roads, hospitals and “students?” What about other “undesirables” like Hispanics, Blacks, poor people, motorcycle gangs, skinheads, hippies, etc.? To equate people with roads, hospitals and subdivisions for purposes of excluding them from our “neighborhoods” is as illiberal as one can imagine. What other categories of people will Heidi and company find unfit to live in our neighborhoods in the future? Maybe since she is a liberal, she will not use racial or other personal characteristics of people for exclusionary purposes, but occupation. Maybe, for instance, she will ban journalists from living in certain areas, or certainly undesirables like attorneys. Then, with precedent in place, extend it to people whose occupations do not justify upscale living, like child care workers, or even better, University employees. This isn’t liberalism. In fact it smacks of fascism when we start deciding which of our citizens are entitled to live where they choose. Maybe some other sanctions would be appropriate for these undesirables - maybe camps would eliminate these nasty “students” from spoiling our pleasant little town. Weren’t you Heidi lovers a little embarrassed when Sonny Perdue had to rescue so many of our citizens from the “code enforcement” types by sponsoring legislation to stop our “progressive” mayor from trampling our civil rights? What the hell would you do if some cop came to your door and demanded to know the identity and relationship of everyone living with you? Give it up like they do in Iran? In my opinion, true believers in our traditions of respect for all individuals would tell the inquisitor to go to hell.
Incidentally, while you are engaged in your preposterous Heidi worship, please explain how “progressives” swallowed her decision to fire Ethelyn Simpson because she had the audacity to find people innocent when the charges were not proved. Picking judges to pander to your political agenda rather than reaching just resolutions of conflicts is so George Bush-like that it seems a smart guy like you might notice. So, please, while bowing to Heidi, let me suggest this mantra, “Stop fucking with our civil rights, Ms. Liberal… Stop fucking with our civil rights, Ms. Liberal….”
This is a personal note to you to urge you to take a realistic look at your hero, not any plea for publication of my views. I just think you hurt your own credibility when you pander to Heidi in the face of policies and decisions that she makes which infringe on our rights. “Liberals” can become tyrants, too, so please open your eyes and, acting as the liberal that you have claimed to be since I have known you, condemn the restriction of anyone’s civil rights (even those evil conspiratorial Communists - oops, I mean students) and at the very minimum say something about Heidi’s brazen move to play judge and mayor. Unless, of course, you think we should turn our courts over to the executive branch. After all, separation of powers is so non-progressive - such an old idea that we really need to modernize and let these pansy judges know that finding people innocent makes you a pussy. I would really like to see you explain in a column how Heidi, at least with respect to the “demand your genealogy if you want to live in my neighborhood” freedom initiative and “fire judges who refuse to elevate politics over justice” agenda, separates herself from the most authoritarian neocons who are presently destroying one American ideal after another. I’m sure you have an answer that somehow exonerates her, because you obviously think she is the world’s first perfect person.
Love,
Hue Henry
P.S. Why didn’t Heidi save Terry Schiavo from those treacherous judges who murdered her? After all, Heidi is the best judge around when it comes to pre-determining the outcome of legal cases. I’m sure she would ensure everyone’s right to a trial before the judge finds them guilty.
Editor’s response:
Hue -- While I believe personally that this letter is insanely full of shit, I will be happy to publish it in Flagpole.
Thanks.
Pete
Touché, Pete. Insanity is in the eye of the beholder in politics. You can publish whatever, although that was not my purpose in writing to you. I just wanted to let you know that your idea of “progressive” might be a little flawed given your political loyalties. If you feel like opposition to genetics police and judges picked to reach preordained decisions is “insanely full of shit,” so be it, but when you put it out there, you deservedly diminish your standing with true liberals. If you decide to publish my letter, you should publish your response also along with this comment. If you want to publicize our disagreement, publishing a full record including your definition of insanity is only fair.
Letters
From You!
Panhandling
originally published September 27, 2006
“The problem of homelessness:” I understand a business owner’s problem with many people sitting around outside of their business panhandling, or even one person for that matter that has settled within a range that obstructs potential customers [City Pages, Sept. 20]. Each business has a right to an open playing field where the potential customers are not hindered outside of their store. Just as it would be illegal for a group of people to come and start breakdancing two feet from the business’s front door obstructing business, so should it be for the former. My problem lies with attempting to make panhandling illegal, in effect attempting to make homelessness illegal. It is like making sickness illegal. I realize homelessness can be (sometimes is from things that have happened to the individual) the result of bad decisions, but it is still a “result.” Sickness can be a result of bad decisions, but it is a “result;” it still exists. It still should be dealt with and not by making it illegal. To make it illegal is like treating the symptoms of a sickness and not the cause. If you send homeless people away or to jail, the sickness is still there. Someone is dealing with them, just not you. It is setting up a fantasy world where if you put all of the stray animals out of your nice neighborhood, they still exist and will be back!
Letters
From You!
9/11: Wake Or Funeral?
originally published September 27, 2006
After having watched the all-day cryfest on the 9/11 anniversary, it strikes me that any terrorists watching the TV coverage were probably gloating as we wallowed in our public sorrow. One of our unique strengths, the sense of optimism exemplified by our generally forward-thinking public ideology, is completely negated by this sort of extravagant backward-looking display. Part of it has more to do, in my judgment, with the fact that the apple of our collective eye, our supremely self-important New York City, was hit hardest. If the same sort of attack had happened in Atlanta or Kansas City (or Oklahoma City, for that matter - compare the media reaction between 9/11 and OKC dispassionately), there’s no way it would have caused this level of national reaction.
Instead of the ridiculously overblown spectacle we saw the other day, maybe we should use this opportunity to reinvent 9/11 as a more characteristically forward-looking celebration of America. Instead of concentrating on the consequences for a handful of victims’ families, we should be thinking about the hundreds of thousands of families who have fallen into poverty or have had already tough conditions made worse for them through an unconscionable overreaction to 9/11. Think of the effects that sky-high gas prices and cuts in government services are having on elderly and disabled people living on fixed incomes, many of whom draw less than $650 per month.
I can’t help but think that if we could somehow find the strength to make future 9/11 anniversaries more of a celebration, with the atmosphere of a wake rather than a funeral, that we would be undermining the morale of our enemies much more effectively than our current strategy is doing.
Letters
From You!
Response RE: Idiots
originally published September 27, 2006
To Kris Langley in response to your letter [“Southern Idiots?” Sept. 13], I would first say simply that your counter is well put. Perhaps rants and personal slights are not the best polemic device. After all, supposedly over 90 percent of the population are essentially religious, and therefore by my definition, idiots. Religion has clearly been around as long as the human race. Evidence of religious beliefs are found in the earliest hominid grave sites. So one could certainly say that it is the height of hubris - if not arrogance - to say that these beliefs, which must surely have brought comfort to millions, are dumb. But, you know what? Stupid is as stupid does. When a young boy straps bombs to his chest and blows up a bus of innocents because he believes that such an act will result in virgins in heaven, that may not be “stupid,” but it certainly does not seem rational. I know that most religious people are not that extreme, but only because they simply choose to ignore large parts of the Bible while embracing other parts. If I told you that rubbing Heinz ketchup on your butt would make you invisible, you might actually want to see some evidence for that claim. It seems to me, however, that religious individuals seem to accept all manner of equally preposterous claims with no need for any evidence whatsoever. So, yeah, maybe it isn’t dumb per se, but I wouldn’t call it brilliant. You say it is this kind of elitist attitude that drives some people to vote Republican. So, in other words, some people vote against their own interests out of spite? This is intelligent? I also do not buy the Bush-fooled-us line. Senate Democrats spout this one as justification for why they originally voted for the Iraqi war. Give me a break. The lies were as transparent then as they are now. I actually love many aspects of the South and I am also Southern. Yet at some point, we have to quit coming down on the wrong side of the issues. If the whole United States voted like Georgia (had our senators, for instance), our democracy, if not our very planet, would be in peril. We need to get our act together. I am tired of being polite as the world goes up in flames. Liberals have to get tough and call it like it is. When the Coulters, and the Hannities and the Limbaughs scream, we must scream louder. In a street fight, combat vet John Kerry could kick George Bush’s rich pampered ass in about two seconds. He should have.
Letters
From You!
Missing Dean
originally published September 27, 2006
I just wanted to send a note thanking y’all for publishing Patrick Dean’s wonderful comics for so many years. He’s already missed within your pages; I have the Sept. 13 issue here, and it’s just not the same without him. Not to dismiss your other cartoonists - Jacob Hunt always prompts a smile and my children adore Tofu Baby - but Flagpole is suddenly severely lacking for the absence of Patrick’s surreal and wonderful stories. I hope you will commission covers and feature illustrations from him in the future.
Letters
From You!
The River
originally published September 27, 2006
Klon’s “The River” cartoon this week [Sept. 13] was more disturbing than the “A Scientific Fact” cartoons ever were. Congratulations. If I were more like Flagpole’s other letter-writing respondents, I might try to find some undertone of racism in it, but that was all I had to say. Congratulations for making my skin crawl a little bit. (I mean that in a good way, I think.)
Letters
From You!
Most Dangerous Enemies
originally published September 27, 2006
The central front in the global war on terror is here in Iraq, and the only way the greatest country in the history of the world can lose is on our homefront. There is a big difference between dissent and directly aiding the enemy in time of war as Jane Fonda, John Kerry and Cynthia McKinney have always done. Extreme liberal politicians like Ted Kennedy, Charles Schumer, Dick Durbin, and their types, along with the city of San Francisco, actually want us to lose. Naive pacifists and appeasers, such as Jimmy Carter and the two Clintons, believe our country is always wrong and that we should get permission from a corrupt and predominantly anti-American UN to defend ourselves. Then, there are the ex-military like Wesley Clark and Max Cleland who would say or do anything for political gain, even embrace Hollywood freaks like Michael Moore who hates America.
The liberal print and broadcast media do us irreparable damage by their bias, distortions and lies. They take the five percent of the bad here in Iraq and magnify it into 100 percent of their coverage. The print media in the enemy camp is led by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe and Los Angeles Times. The members of the broadcast media who always encourage the terrorists are CBS, ABC, NBC, MSNBC and CNN. Take all this crowd and their ilk and add to them the ACLU and liberal, activist judges, who have degraded our flag and mounted a decades-long assault on the religious, family and moral foundations of our nation, and you have our most dangerous enemies.
To all of the above, we are the focus of evil in the world instead of, in Lincoln’s words, “The last great hope of Earth.” To this despicable bunch, not only do we not have a chance to beat the bad guys here in Iraq, we are the bad guys.
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