My Inflammatory Letter to the Editor

[UTUSN]

I thought it was too "hot" on its own but they added the "life and death" headline to it:

Nov. 2: A matter of life and death

To the editor:

A few weeks ago, a slacker and I got into a two-hour discussion over politics. He was voting for Bush, but said he votes for the man, not the party.

His final flourish was to say, “Look, you know good and well that it doesn’t matter who wins: The day after the election, you and I are still going to be going about our business, no matter who wins.”

At that point a fellow in his mid-20s took over the shift. He was shipping to Iraq on Oct. 26. Although this particular individual is the cleanest-cut, hardest working, most helpful person you’d want to know, these things don’t matter for the purposes of the discussion. It could be anybody.

The slacker had smiled and smiled all the way through. Politics was not a serious topic for him. I said to him, “If this dude comes back dead in a box, if you ever see me again, don’t come up to me, don’t greet me, don’t talk to me ever again.”

Finally, a nerve was struck. He flared up angrily and said, “You crossed a line! You can’t blame me for that just for voting for Bush.”

I said, “Oh, yes I can. You’ve been taking this as a big joke. Politics is about serious things: This dude’s life or death. Old people’s medications. Other people making a living.”

Predictably, this was the end of that particular conversation.

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Plus the papeer put the letter next to this cartoon featured in nostamj's toon thread http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2536766

[Ilsa]

1. That was an awesome story.

People need to realize that IT DOES MATTER. For some people, it matters the first day in office when the executive orders go out.

[HEIL PRESIDENT GOD]

2. Maybe change the word "dude"?

I'd hate to go to my death being thought of as a dude by thousands of people.

And maybe define slacker a little too?

[UTUSN]

3. Too Late. It Was Printed Today

They edited out one paragraph------

"(paragraph 2) This phase of 'best qualified' vs. 'party voting' took up a good half of the total time, but as I countered, he took on other permutations, ending with the old familiar, 'they're all the same.' "

--------and one phrase-----

"votes for the man (didn't say 'or woman') "

and took off the apostrophe on "2 hours' discussion"


And they appeared to leave the label "slacker" go with the description of getting-along-with-a-smile in things big and small.

[Eloriel]

4. GREAT Letter

Just goes to show you DO have to find their particular trigger, and it's usually emotional in nature. Put another way:

"It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of what he was never reasoned into." Jonathan Swift

[bobbieinok]

5. kick