Going Postal July 07 2005

Mind elsewhereI would like to commend you for this week’s Don’t Panic (News & Views, June 30). In a time of fear-mongering and spin (from both sides of the coin), it becomes harder and harder for those of us stuck in the middle to find the drive to stay informed. However, I believe it to be our public duty just the same. Thank you for taking a week away from our situation, the war and all its problems to shift our sight to something though unrelated, uplifting. Your story of Aung San Suu Kyi helped at least one of us to remember there are still people out there who hold faith in peaceful change. If others will follow suit ...

- Dan Rusk, Decatur

Give it creditI can’t believe Edgar Ray Killen wants people to be his friends (“Racial healing in Mississippi,” June 30). Wow, that is ... wow.

I’m glad he got a fair trial. I’m glad he got convicted. Much like the Nazis who are still being hunted up around the world, these bad men must be brought to justice.

I still question the motives of many that wish to bring about justice. It makes me wonder whether their back yards are clean of the proverbial shit. I also doubt they will give Mississippi the credit it deserves for this conviction and reconciliation of the past.

I hope [your cover story] means an end to cutting your printed pieces in half and requiring me to get on the computer to read further. If I get stuck with reading Hollis’ column on the train three times again, I swear, I’m kicking Lary’s ass next time I see that loon. Well, not really, after all, he is scary in that chick meth-head sunken cheek kinda way. ...

- Jonny Avery, Atlanta

What a shameIt’s really a shame that you believe “Rep. Lewis: Bush, Powell, Rice lied,” (News & Views, Humbug Square, June 23) and chose to print it without an opposing view.

It’s also a shame that it is in a section called News & Views. As usual, we’ll just let the less educated think that it is news and not just your “view.”

Right-wing lie machine?

- Tony Williams, Lawrenceville

Nutten’ newI admit it, I always read Creative Loathing, just to see what crap is in it this week (News & Views, “Nouraee and Monroe are loafing Americans,” June 23). OK, he caught Doug Monroe on a technicality about Ralph Reed, but I don’t have any doubts in my mind that Reed knew all along about the plot to rip off the Native American tribes.

And as for the “mistake” writer Dave Stahl caught Andisheh Nouraee in, well, if that isn’t petty. To say that Blair hadn’t stated he was “in” on the scheme at the time of the Downing Street memo is silly. When one person or country reveals openly to another the intention to commit a devious act, like “fixing the facts,” they must be pretty damn sure they are communicating with someone who is already “in” on it and agrees with it. Why else would they reveal the details of the intelligence fixing. Blair must have already been a “GO.”

Please get rid of Creative Loathing. It doesn’t bring anything new to the table.

- Robert Soloway, Decatur

Responses to the responsesEdward Diener of Winston, Ga., is almost right to say there is no historical record of Jesus’ existence (Going Postal, “Jesus who?” June 23). The one exception is Josephus, a Roman historian who is on record as having written the following in 93 A.D., in his lengthy history of the Jews: “About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man. For he was one who performed surprising deeds and was a teacher of such people as accept the truth gladly. He won over many Jews and many of the Greeks.”

I offer this detail as an ethical non-Christian who enjoys the slogan, “I have no problem with Jesus. It’s his fan club I can’t stand.”

- Don Perryman, Roswell

One of your recent letter writers stated that “it is never necessary to disrespect anyone’s religion” (Going Postal, “You offended me,” June 16).

I strongly disagree. When a religion states that the Earth was created in six days some 5,000 years ago, that is ridiculous and not deserving of respect. When a religion believes virgins give birth and people walk on water and rise from the dead, that too is ridiculous and not deserving of respect.

And when a religion places women in a second-class status, calls gays intrinsically evil, and condemns the use of condoms to prevent the spread of AIDS, that religion is in itself disrespectful of human rights and common sense.

In my mind, it is necessary to loudly disrespect ignorance and magical thinking.

I am so tired of religion being treated as if it were sacred. Most religion is fanciful belief, not absolute fact. Most religions are collections of myths from long ago; myths people used to explain what they could not understand. It is no secret that most religions are opposed to scientific, cultural and political progress for the sole reason that they are afraid of losing support for their world view, and thereby losing power.

It’s time we knocked religion off its pedestal and admit that it is not fact, but a conscious choice to ignore the facts and engage in simple wishful thinking.

- Tom Kowalski, Atlanta