Thursday, October 16, 2003
FLAME ON!
Well I guess I’ve hit the big time. I have started getting the occaional spam comment from creepy-sounding addresses I won’t name for fear of further boosting their stats, but that hardly seemed personal - just business.
BUT NOW: I have finally gotten an actual flame. I’m so proud! The only problem is that it was posted yesterday on an entry that went up in late August. For reference, this is the relevant post: it lays out many of the problems and… um… what’s the opposite of “accomplishment”? - dis-complishments of the current executive administration in washington. It still impresses the hell out of me that Jared did so much research and made the points so unassailable.
Well, they got assailed yesterday, when this comment was posted (which I cheerfully cut and paste verbatim):
yea okay all you people who think bush is a loser need to grow up because if you were the president i think you’d be doing the same thing --going to war. obviously you people dont understand politics or anything because you think bush is dumb or ugly or whatever. if you’d rather him not fight, and you’d rather listen to gay rumors that ALWAYS go around about EVERY president (clinton and monica...as if that EVER happened) then go ahead but yeaaa i’d like to see any of you guys get tough enough to go over to iraq and fight this war, or RULE THE FREAKING MOST POWERFUL COUNTRY IN THE WORLD.
IP Address: 24.62.58.78
Name: katey
Email Address:
I wrote back my response in an email, not expecting the writer to check back here at the ‘hut to see what I have to say. But since I’m such a big celebrity and all now, what with getting antagonistic emails from strangers, I thought I’d capitalize on my newfound intellectual capital. Cutting and pasting verbatim, I hereby magnanimously share what I wrote back in response:
I’m surprised to find a new comment on a post I put up so long ago, but since you felt it important enough to make a statement at this late date, it is at least worth the dignity of a response.
1) That post related only to reported news events and objective facts: criminal records, vacations taken, decisions made, materials and discussions kept from the public eye. I didn’t resort to insults or name-calling; I didn’t call anybody ugly or dumb. It disappoints me that you can do little more in response than to impugn my sexuality or toughness. You have no idea how many fights I’ve fought or against whom, or how I’d handle myself given the awesome power and responsibility that our president enjoys. If you think I’m weak, tell me why. But remember: it always takes guts to disagree with the forces that weild unanswerable power, as the present administration does. It’s easy to suck up their pabulum and kowtow to their authority.
2) I wish that Bush *would* run this country. He’s gutting environmental, educational, and civil protections, leaving critical decisions in the hands of local corporate interests or over-zealous law enforcement and religious hierarchies. I also wish that he’d stop trying to run *other* countries. When we’re being attacked, we should go to war. When we can’t find our enemy, we shouldn’t just transfer our anger to the nearest convenient dictator. We’ve spent 79 billion in Iraq already and have found NO WMDs, NO ability for Saddam to have harmed a hair on our heads, and NO SADDAM. Meanwhile teachers are being laid off and forests are being levelled and old people are living on the streets when they get evicted from their apartments for buying prescription medicine instead of paying rent. We’re in serious trouble and need a leader in the White House, not a wanna-be fighter pilot mouthing scripted platitudes.
3) For the record, I think Clinton had some serious moral deficiencies and most likely he did what he was accused of with Monica and several others. I don’t consider any of that an impeachable offense, though. It was a matter of private sexuality, not public policy. Lying about foreign policy, making up evidence to justify our going to war, giving vital governmental powers over to private friends with business interests, and locking up innocent people because they come from the wrong country - that’s a different story. And the hypocrisy with which our president attacks those who follow in his footsteps as a draft evader, a drunk driver, and an underachiever who got where he is through nepotism and powerful connections - it’s shameful.
4, and finally:) I don’t want to be president. But if I were, I would think very carefully before committing money we don’t have on a war we didn’t have to fight against people already decimated by starvation and disease. I’d work harder to build international coalitions to solve international problems. And I’d worry more about the working poor and children in inadequate public schools, than the right to put the word GOD on everybody’s walls and lips or the profit margins of oil companies. What’s more, I volunteer my time and work full-time for non-profit enterprise, all dedicated to making my community a better, safer, and smarter place to live. If you don’t invest your time and energy (if not your money) in such efforts, please don’t accuse others who do of being weak. It is hard work to fix things, and calling people out with schoolyard taunts isn’t just useless - it’s counterproductive and keeps us from moving forward.
I wouldn’t have known of your comment if I didn’t have email notification of new comments. If you have something to say to me, come out and say it. Don’t hide in comments that haven’t been updated in 2 months or more. Be proud of your opinion, or keep it to yourself. My email address is on my blog. And don’t worry about staying buried as you currently are - I’m going to post your letter to me right now. Welcome to daylight.
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Now that’s a fun way to start a new day. Union bargaining teambuilding went well yesterday; tonight I go back to my tutoring program and help a 60 year old woman learn to read. I think I’m going to have good posture all day long. It makes me such an easy target!
