Letter to the editor

[SCRawl]

My local paper, the Burlington Post, had a letter to the editor recently, supporting the recent decision of the local Catholic school board to pull The Golden Compass from its library shelves, citing its atheist author and anti-Catholic bias. Here it is.

I agree with the Halton Catholic District School Board's decision to remove The Golden Compass from its school libraries.
The Board -- as do all adults -- has the moral obligation to ensure that the minds of students and children are protected from any material that could cause them harm.
There is a thoughtful quote on the window of the Christian bookstore on Guelph Line -- What goes into a mind, comes out in a life.
Something to think about.

I find that I just can't let this one go, so I've composed the following.

After reading X's letter from the December 6 edition of the Burlington Post, I can't help but feel that the Halton Catholic District School Board libraries haven't gone far enough to protect the fragile minds of our children.

I have become aware that there is another book, widely circulated in most libraries, which would benefit from the same scrutiny applied to Mr. Putnam's trilogy. It features stories of incest, cannibalism, child sacrifice, genital mutilation, and genocide. It condones slavery. It is full of scientific inaccuracies. In the wrong hands, this book is dangerous; it can and has been used to justify atrocities at various points in our history.

This book is titled "The Holy Bible", and is the work of various authors.

There's a minor problem: I do some video editing on the side, and my current client is, at minimum, religious. If she reads the paper, she might not appreciate my comments, truthful as they are. My plan is to submit the letter with my name, or not at all.

Any thoughts?

[Aorus]

It doesn't seem like you have anything to gain by using your name. The point is to get the message across, no? Unless they refuse to publish your letter unless you provide a real name/address, why not just use a pseudonym?

[SCRawl]

It doesn't seem like you have anything to gain by using your name. The point is to get the message across, no? Unless they refuse to publish your letter unless you provide a real name/address, why not just use a pseudonym?

The idea of submitting an effectively anonymous letter offends my sensibilities. If I feel strongly enough about the issue to write a letter, should I not also sign my name to it?

[Hawkwings]

It's a good letter. I was half expecting you to try to get them to pull Farenheit 451 from the shelves, but the Bible works too.

Unless you'd like to gain notoriety among your friends and the community who reads the paper, you should probably use a pseudonym. Perhaps you can come up with a snarky name that adds some more bite to your letter.

[Hawkwings]

EDIT: Well, you obviously also consider your video editing job important. So what's more important, your sensibilities or your side job?

Then again, using an obvious pseudonym might encourage people to attack you for being afraid of being recognized because you know that your your soul will go to hell or some other nonsense like that.

[Phantasee]

Use a pseudonym to protect your job, and so that you can protect the kids. Best of both worlds, don't really see a negative to it. Loads of famous people used them, after all. Not like anyone looks down on them for it, right?

[Kanastrous]

Weigh the importance of saying it and standing by it, against the consequences of speaking your piece. I agree that anonymous comment leaves a lot to be desired.

[Darth Wong]

It doesn't seem like you have anything to gain by using your name. The point is to get the message across, no? Unless they refuse to publish your letter unless you provide a real name/address, why not just use a pseudonym?

The idea of submitting an effectively anonymous letter offends my sensibilities. If I feel strongly enough about the issue to write a letter, should I not also sign my name to it?

Your real name is only necessary if there is some doubt about the intellectual integrity of your work. In this case, the letter's validity has absolutely nothing to do with the honesty of its author, so it really isn't important how its authorship is declared.

Having said that, a lot of newspapers demand valid contact information before they will print a letter to the editor. However, you could simply shorten your last name to a letter, and give them valid contact info like E-mail or phone number (they won't be published, but some newspapers want them anyway, in case they want to contact you for some reason). For example, if your name is John Smith, then just send it as "John S". That is still your name, but it's not as specific.

[Peptuck]

If you want to really drive the point home, put in a quick Bible quote to prove your point. That one where Moses orders his people to kill all the men and nonvirgin women in a city and then make slaves of the virgins is a great one to hammer the fact in.

[Darth Wong]

If you want to really drive the point home, put in a quick Bible quote to prove your point. That one where Moses orders his people to kill all the men and nonvirgin women in a city and then make slaves of the virgins is a great one to hammer the fact in.

I find that almost everyone knows the story of Jericho, but they don't know what happened after the walls fell. I have elicited a reaction of genuine shock, surprise, and sometimes disbelief virtually every single time I've pointed that out to a Bible thumper. Many times I've actually had to resort to offering a large wager, like a thousand dollars, before they'll believe me (none of them ever take the wager; it would appear that their profound confidence in the morality of the Bible has a value somewhere below $1000).

[Peptuck]

If you want to really drive the point home, put in a quick Bible quote to prove your point. That one where Moses orders his people to kill all the men and nonvirgin women in a city and then make slaves of the virgins is a great one to hammer the fact in.

I find that almost everyone knows the story of Jericho, but they don't know what happened after the walls fell. I have elicited a reaction of genuine shock, surprise, and sometimes disbelief virtually every single time I've pointed that out to a Bible thumper. Many times I've actually had to resort to offering a large wager, like a thousand dollars, before they'll believe me (none of them ever take the wager; it would appear that their profound confidence in the morality of the Bible has a value somewhere below $1000).

Isn't it simpler to just quote the verse number at them and tell them to look it up for themselves?

[wolveraptor]

Are you really going to get that letter published? You simply can't admit in public that the Bible is full of anything but sweet, wholesome cream-filling. Not in the US, anyways. I didn't think that Canada was so much freer from religion than we in the States.

[Darth Wong]

If you want to really drive the point home, put in a quick Bible quote to prove your point. That one where Moses orders his people to kill all the men and nonvirgin women in a city and then make slaves of the virgins is a great one to hammer the fact in.

I find that almost everyone knows the story of Jericho, but they don't know what happened after the walls fell. I have elicited a reaction of genuine shock, surprise, and sometimes disbelief virtually every single time I've pointed that out to a Bible thumper. Many times I've actually had to resort to offering a large wager, like a thousand dollars, before they'll believe me (none of them ever take the wager; it would appear that their profound confidence in the morality of the Bible has a value somewhere below $1000).

Isn't it simpler to just quote the verse number at them and tell them to look it up for themselves?

I don't memorize verse numbers. Besides, when you do that, they simply promise that they will look it up and get back to you with the truth, because they're absolutely certain that you're misrepresenting the text. A $1000 wager completely deflates their confidence, forces them to back down in front of everyone else (because they secretly doubt their own bullshit), and is a very public display of your own confidence in your claim.

If they keep squirming, say "Hey, I'll even put it in writing, and we can both sign it. That makes it legally binding" and start writing out the wager on a piece of paper. Forcing them to back down in front of others is totally worth it.

[Guardsman Bass]

Do you have a middle name? If you have a fairly common last name, you could simply send it with your first two names in initials. For example, if you name is Alex James Smith, you could send it as "A.J. Smith". Or do what Mike suggested, but there's not any real completely risk free approach to this, unless you want to send in a minor note with your letter asking the editor not to publish your full last name.

[Aaron]

Are you really going to get that letter published? You simply can't admit in public that the Bible is full of anything but sweet, wholesome cream-filling. Not in the US, anyways. I didn't think that Canada was so much freer from religion than we in the States.

There shouldn't be a problem publishing the letter aside from space constraints. Canada as a society is less hampered by religion than the States. There are still however lots of religious half-wits around and can be stupid about there beliefs.. It's far more prominent in rural areas than the city.

[Darth Wong]

It's mostly the older generation which is obnoxious about it. I know a guy who says "I am not religious at all" but who rants about "the secular war on Christmas" and how "this country is based on Christian values". For a lot of people, their spectrum of comprehension is narrowed by their upbringing, and they think that "no religion" just means "Christian but I don't bother attending church".

[SCRawl]

Thanks for weighing in, folks. The deed is done; I've submitted it using a (believable) pseudonym. This all becomes much ado about nothing, though, if they don't print the letter. I half-suspect that dozens of people have submitted essentially the same letter, so mine might get bumped for that reason.

[Darth Wong]

Thanks for weighing in, folks. The deed is done; I've submitted it using a (believable) pseudonym. This all becomes much ado about nothing, though, if they don't print the letter. I half-suspect that dozens of people have submitted essentially the same letter, so mine might get bumped for that reason.

There's also a possibility that the editorial staff might find it offensive, depending on what kind of people they are. Remember how massively one-sided the average fundie's idea of "offensive" is.

[SCRawl]

Thanks for weighing in, folks. The deed is done; I've submitted it using a (believable) pseudonym. This all becomes much ado about nothing, though, if they don't print the letter. I half-suspect that dozens of people have submitted essentially the same letter, so mine might get bumped for that reason.

There's also a possibility that the editorial staff might find it offensive, depending on what kind of people they are. Remember how massively one-sided the average fundie's idea of "offensive" is.

That occurred to me as well, but given this editorial cartoon from the same issue, I'm thinking that they aren't quite so opposed to this sort of thing. Here's to hoping.

[FSTargetDrone]

Be sure to let us know if it's printed.

[Terralthra]

It's mostly the older generation which is obnoxious about it. I know a guy who says "I am not religious at all" but who rants about "the secular war on Christmas" and how "this country is based on Christian values". For a lot of people, their spectrum of comprehension is narrowed by their upbringing, and they think that "no religion" just means "Christian but I don't bother attending church".

This reminds me of a person on a reality TV show who said, and I quote, "I'm not religious, but I have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ..."

I'm not quite sure how she reconciles those two clauses. I later found out her occupation is Christian talk show host.

[SilverWingedSeraph]

A lot of Christians seem to use some sort of strange logic to conclude that Christianity is not a religion. I've lost count of how many times I've heard somone say, "I'm not religious, I'm Christian." Or "Oh, I don't believe in religion. I'm a Christian."

I always tell these fucking idiots to look up the definition of religion in the dictionary, because they obviously don't know what the fuck it means.

[Keevan_Colton]

That occurred to me as well, but given this editorial cartoon from the same issue, I'm thinking that they aren't quite so opposed to this sort of thing. Here's to hoping.

Arguments and controversy in the letters page are considered a good thing in the newspaper industry. If people get riled up about it they keep buying to follow the arguments.

[Rye]

A lot of Christians seem to use some sort of strange logic to conclude that Christianity is not a religion. I've lost count of how many times I've heard somone say, "I'm not religious, I'm Christian." Or "Oh, I don't believe in religion. I'm a Christian."

I always tell these fucking idiots to look up the definition of religion in the dictionary, because they obviously don't know what the fuck it means.

Given my experience on the internet, that's a popular idea, and I've even heard them say they're not theists. They basically have been taught that religion = stuffy old set of rituals, not a direct link with God, but since their communal worship and "personal relationship with God" is full of people frothing in tongues and shouting and shit, it's not a religion. But of course, it is, it's the communal worship of the almighty creator of the universe that gives it away.

The theist thing is, I think, just the confusion between theist and polytheist (which could usually be argued anyway).

[DavidEC]

The Telegraph is Britain's most popular quality newspaper, with 800,000+ copies per day circulation.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main ... dt0401.xml

(It was great when I saw my name in print. )

General tips: Once you have written your letter, go back over it and ruthlessly eliminate any words which are not necessary, and find phrases and combinations to keep your letter length as short as possible. It could be something as simple as 'our children's fragile minds' instead of 'the fragile minds of our children'. Every bit counts because editors like quick, soundbitey letters which don't hog too many column inches.

Can I suggest some alterations SCrawl?