LEO welcomes letters that are brief (250 words max) and thoughtful. Ad hominem attacks will be ignored, and we need your name and a daytime phone number. Send snail mail to EROSIA, 640 S. Fourth St., Louisville, Ky. 40202. Fax to 895-9779 or e-mail to [email protected]. We may edit for length, grammar and clarity.
Mommy’s War Hero
Regarding the anonymous (i.e., cowardly) letter you printed in the Jan. 10 Erosia, in which some lame milquetoast whined because you printed a cartoon that he found offensive, I realize that the best response is to ignore him/her. People who brainlessly rant about things they don’t understand are to be pitied and ignored.
And yet I can’t help myself. I notice this fella/gal said, “And to think my family has protected your rights and freedoms makes me ill.”
Obviously what this gutless milksop is implying is that HE wouldn’t dream of signing up to fight in this illegal war that he apparently supports. Perhaps his great-granddaddy fought in the Great War, and that means that this unnamed coward is practically a war hero himself (in his mind and the mind of his mommy).
He probably “fights” for his beliefs, whining daily in some anonymous blog in which he moans about “lie-berals” and “feminazis.” That this pansy has a spine to sit long enough to write down this lame rant is amazing.
I’ve nothing but contempt for this sort of coward.
Dan Trabue
World History 101
This is an open letter from a Vietnam-era veteran to the readers and commentators of LEO. Like most of you, I voted for John Yarmuth, excuse me, Congressman Yarmuth, because he showed a passion for change. After years of voting for former Congresswoman Northup and seeing the exhaustion on her face during the campaign, I thought perhaps she should come home to focus and reflect on her family.
Also during the last campaign, the term “we are losing our prestige around the world because of Iraq” was repeated by opposition to the Iraq War. Exactly which nation or nations have we lost prestige to? It couldn’t be Germany, with its history of starting two world wars, with millions killed. Maybe it’s China, where millions of civilians were killed during Mao’s purges. Perhaps it’s Russia, formerly known as the Soviet Union, where millions of civilians were killed during Stalin’s reign. Perhaps it’s France, whose colonization of Algiers continues from the 18th century. It couldn’t be Spain, with their harsh policies against Morocco and the Basques separatists. It definitely isn’t the Swiss. They’re still denying they had anything to do with hiding millions in Holocaust assets from Nazi Germany’s slaughter of millions. Holland and Belgium? Nope! Their diamond industry was partly responsible for maintaining the oppressive apartheid regime in South Africa. And let’s not forget the rape and pillage by the Japanese army in China during World War II. It definitely isn’t North Korea. They’re developing nuclear weapons while their people starve.
And how quickly some forget how most of Western Europe turned a blind eye to the slaughter in Bosnia by the Serbs. America led the way to stop the slaughter. Now they are rebuilding. I wish them well.
Most Americans know little about how the nations of the world operate. During the former British prime minister’s reign, free speech was squelched against the IRA’s (Irish Republican Army) legally elected leader to the British Parliament. Perhaps for good reason, since the IRA was a known terrorist group. (I wonder if Sen. Ted Kennedy’s family made any contributions to the IRA.) During the 1980s, Indonesia hanged a young British citizen for possession of hashish. Even the Queen of England’s plea for leniency fell on deaf ears for the young man.
There are many more examples of worldwide oppression, too many to continue here. But I would agree with those who want to bring our troops home from Iraq. But let us start first with closing the remaining bases in Western Europe and around the world. Let’s make a complete troop redeployment and bring our troops home. We really don’t need them there.
Keith E. Lewis
Mojo Karma
A few months ago, I wrote a rather scathing letter to the editor about Louisville Mojo, a local online community. I made a blanket condemnation of the entire site, which I feel unfairly characterized and hurt many people based on the actions of a few. As a fair and thoughtful person (I like to think so, anyway), I would like to clarify a few things.
Perhaps most importantly, my criticism was aimed at a few people in only one of the many forums on Mojo, which is called “Chit Chat.” There are probably 10 other forums on the site ranging from idle chatter to politics to computer topics — I did not participate in any of the other forums. “Chit Chat” constitutes about 10 percent of all the different groups and forums for this community, so to criticize the entire site was particularly unfair of me.
As for “Chit Chat,” I did have problems with perhaps 10 or so of the regular posters in that forum, but to be fair, I was not always a “model poster” when I first joined. What I felt was just being funny or off-the-wall was interpreted as being hostile, and I did develop a negative reputation that I was never quite able to shake. As time went on, I did “learn the rules,” so to speak, and many people appreciated my posting style and wit, but unfortunately the stigma remained, and some never did care for me, resulting in numerous “fights” online.
I do feel Louisville Mojo is a good resource for the community, but like any community, it does have spoken and unspoken “rules” that are important to understand and abide by for a pleasant experience. There are many good people who participate in the various forums — and some not so good people — but such is life in general. Louisville Mojo is simply a reflection of society, the good, the bad and the ugly, and is, basically, what you make it. An interesting take on my original letter can be found on the homepage of Mojo, titled “Is Mojo a joke? We’re laughing, does that count?” I would encourage the community to read this as well.
Michael Reese
91 Pages of Dog Doo
I have spent the time to read all 91 pages of the so-called “dangerous dog” ordinance passed by the Metro Council and signed by the mayor. I have nothing good to say about it. From what I can make of it, it is now both a criminal AND a civil offense if any provision within any provision of the ordinance is violated (e.g. if your dog barks “excessively” — read the wording of sections 91.998 and 91.999 VERY carefully!). All I can say is welcome to NAZI, USA!
Dog owners who own unaltered dogs or have one that goes to quarantine, well ... get used to that RFID chip under your dog’s skin; there will probably be somebody knocking on your door from time to time wishing to “scan” your dog. If your dog is deemed “dangerous,” you may as well kiss it goodbye. The “director” can determine if it must be euthanized, and the law pushes licenses for those dogs to $500. Not to worry, if you receive two complaints that your dog growled at someone, you’ll only have to pay $250 for it being a “potentially dangerous” dog. And if you can’t afford to have that 4-foot fence replaced with a 6-foot fence to keep an unaltered dog, or you just spent that money on an electric fence, well ... tough. Guess you’ll just have to get Fluffy neutered, or kiss him goodbye as well.
I was fine with the rules on pit bulls. I agree (somewhat) with the “pooper scooper” provision, though my version would have been “just kick it in the grass.” Even if rottweilers had been added to the mix, I wouldn’t have been too ticked off. But this ordinance includes EVERY dog (and other animals, too); as a pet owner, I firmly believe these new measures are too draconian, do nothing to solve the issue at hand (dog attacks), severely limit the rights of breeders, raise taxpayer overhead and have no place whatsoever in our dog-owning society. (By the way, this was passed against the advice of two organizations of animal experts and despite the reactions of citizens to the revised ordinance.) Because of this, I don’t think the mayor or his Metro Council will be too happy around election time.
For anyone with the time to read all 91 pages and form their own opinion, the full text of the ordinance is at
www.wlky.com.
Michael Hayes
