As I (ahem) expected, I got a few letters from readers about last week’s story about the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill’s successful campaign to get Sears to stop selling a T-shirt. It reads:
As I (ahem) expected, I got a few letters from readers about last week’s story about the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill’s successful campaign to get Sears to stop selling a T-shirt. It reads:
In the 25 August 2002 newsletter, there was a paid ad for an anti-Bush bumper sticker. The ad’s headline: There’s Dirt Under Every Bu$h. That led to (ahem) several reader letters:
I’m “anti-Christian” again (darn it!) — according to a few Catholic readers, anyway. I refer to the story about the fastest-growing religion in Australia:
Yes, True is about weird news. More importantly, it’s about thinking, which implies a quest for knowledge and understanding. That’s most evident in my editorials; here are two of them on the same subject, starting with one from May 2002:
Just how clueless is Hollywood? Very. It’s bad enough that they try to jam crap down our throats all the time, but they also demand that you sit and watch that commercial for “Tide” detergent — all 26 times it runs tonight.
I ran more “zero tolerance” stories last week, and I’m noticing a new trend: when I run the stories, I get mail from readers asking what they can do about this trend, since it obviously is a trend and not just an isolated happening. The new trend: many ask if I would please provide the mail/email address of the schools involved so you can give the administrators a piece of your mind.
A couple of letters regarding Zero Tolerance, starting with Wayne in NWT, Canada:
Exactly six weeks after terrorists turned several of our airliners into guided missiles, I flew again.
I’ve been editorializing — for a couple of years now — that “Zero Tolerance” policies and laws “terrorize” school children. It’s hard enough for adults in America to understand the new way of life as we face true terrorism; imagine how hard it is for kids. Here’s how one child tried to cope — and how the “adults” around him reacted.
Written 21 September 2001. Also see the 2005 Update
You might think “Zero Tolerance” is a playground issue — just a way for school administrators to deal with violent kids. If you did, you would be wrong.
After yet more recent “zero tolerance” stories, the tenor of readers is “we want to do something about this!” I’ve had several questions like this, from Aaron in California:
Email makes it easy to complain. Too easy. I find people will literally complain about anything they see online.
When I was a kid, I would sometimes wonder if I’d live to see the 21st Century. I’m not particularly old, so it wasn’t a question of dying of old age first, but rather that I grew up in 1960s Los Angeles, with all the anxiety that entailed.
Bryant in Kansas, responding to a couple of recent stories that touched on religion, says: “I’ve grown weary of your newsletter, and your anti-Christian bent. I always wonder why anything ‘Christian’ gets blasted and not any other religion? Don’t tell me that it’s because Christians are so narrow minded. I won’t buy into that one.”
Ever since I saw Tron in 1982, I wondered how long it would be before computer power would allow anyone with talent to become a “real” filmmaker.
I got this most interesting letter from a reader:
One of my pet peeves is Public Relations Flacks. These are not to be confused with Public Relations Professionals — PR people who do a good job getting The Word out about their clients. They hate the word “flack,” but when they make their clients look bad — well, they’re inviting the derision.
My recent story on preserving a nuclear missile silo brought a fair amount of mail. Let’s start with the story: