Damn...

You guys would have loved the letter to the editor I read yesterday, and the rebuttal that went with it.  I tried like hell to find it online, but it eluded me.

The letter was published in a local weekly newspaper/magazine from the county where I work (Monroe County, PA).  Its one of those free rags with lots of local color and advertisements, prayers and in memoriums, wedding and funeral announcements... you get the idea, right?  This part of PA has a very large Catholic population (mainly Italian and Irish, with Poles and Latinos too), so many of the prayers, intercessions and blessings are of a very Catholic nature.  With that Catholic flavor, there comes a touch of conservatism, too... and that is what prompted the letter to the editor.

The letter was written by a young woman, probably late teens, whose spelling and grammar were left unimproved by the editor when he published her comments.  Her main issue seems to have been that there was far too much "opinion" and "religion" in the publication for her taste.  Seems her liberal young mind didn't have any tolerance for the prayers and supplications of the faithful that read and contribute, so she was starting a campaign to stop her "friends" from reading the paper.

The editor did a fantastic job of showing just how "ignorant" this sort of person is... and where this sort of person comes from.  Knowing nothing about her background, level of education, upbringing or anything else, he blamed her closed-mindedness, intolerance and bigotry on a fundamental failing in the general education system of this country.

As the editor said in his rebuttal, he did nothing to make her look more stupid or ignorant than she did all by herself.  He simply followed a time-honored Bund method of systematically reducing an argument to its core pieces and showing them for exactly what they proved to be:  exactly the same sort of intolerance, ignorance and backwards thinking that she was wrongly accusing the paper of utilizing.  He even printed her letter in black ink and his comments and responses in red, so that there could be no confusion as to what was being read.

The young woman seemed fixated on the premise that what was printed in the paper was irrelevant or worse, harmful, to the greater community at large because it was not the view of the majority.  Not everyone believes in the same "god" as Catholics (an utterly ignorant statement in and of itself), so either a disclaimer needs to be applied or equal time and space needs to be dedicated to ALL other views.  The editor calmly and rationally pointed out that there were, by his estimations, more than 46,000 "established" religions and faiths in North America alone, worshiping any number of gods, deities, spirits, trees, etc. and almost countless "denominations" within that sphere.  Were he to dedicate time and space to ALL of these, no one would print the paper, let alone read it.

She repeatedly made reference to the "fact" that by keeping his articles and contributions to such a narrow segment of our society (presumably meaning Catholics and Republicans), we were alienating others and detracting from the diversity that she so loved to see in our country.  She compared the views expressed in the paper with something she expected to read in a paper from central Alabama... again, presumably meaning that people from central Alabama were inherently closed-minded, ignorant, diversity-hating fascists. The editor then pointed to the obvious "fact" that it was, in fact, herself that was being narrow-minded and bigoted by assuming that everyone from central Alabama would think or act the way she thought they would... or should.

As entertaining as reading this was (it was like getting to read a Bund post while at work, in the pit)... the best part was his conclusion or closing argument.  The failing in the education of that young woman, and indeed, in most of America's youth today, is the propagation of a misunderstanding behind the importance of the First Amendment's guaranty of protection for speech, religion and the press.

The First Amendment doesn't allow someone like this delusional liberal-leaning teen to determine what can and can't be printed, or under what conditions that printing can happen by.  It does not allow the consideration of what the "majority" cares about at all.  It CAN'T.  It is the very fact that we can say, pray or print anything we want (barring that which causes direct and measurable harm to another, of course) that allows the great diversity this child so (seemingly) appreciates... yet she doesn't understand this.  She seems to be taught by the very institutions she is defending that only what is "right" and "fair" is what should be available for print in the local papers, and if it is contrary to hers or anyone else's opinions, then it must be disclaimed or omitted entirely.

I sure hope her high school principle and civics teacher read that letter...