Snail-mail responses

It is easy to forget in this digital age that not everybody is online and in the rapid-response mode. Some still prefer the old-fashioned letter, sent by U.S. Mail — like the gentelman from Florida who sent me a card with a Normon Rockwell-esque front porch and a pair of American flags above “America, the Beautiful.”

He was responding to my pre-inauguration column celebrating the end of the Bush years (he sent me a copy of the column, as if I hadn’t read it), headlined “Awakening from a nightmare.”

Here is what he had to say:

Dear Mr. Kalet,

What you really can’t forgive President George W. Bush for is that he was right in his steadfastness on Iraq which has brought us a democratic state in this vital region. His sophomore successor couseled retreat which would have brought us Vietnam II and possibly worse.

Let’s hope that the rookie now in charge with his pro-Palestinian background and terrorist associates has truly reformed or you really will experience some real nightmares.

Krugman? Olberman? You need a little balance in your media experience.

Proud to be in the 25% Bush minority.

Sincerely,
Nick Lardieri

Should I go point by point? Should I bother countering any of this? Or is it best to just offer my readers the missive unannotated and let everyone get on with things?

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

Doggie diary: The story of Rosie and Sophie The chapter in which they become

Jody, our neighbor’s dog, has been checking the pups out lately. At first, it seemed like Rosie and Sophie were a bit scared and Jody, who must be around 10, was wary. Now, however, all three seem a bit more comfortable seeing each other.

This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, QuickTime� 6.5 or higher is required.

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

Well played — until September

My friend Bill sent this to me. It is from Matthew Cerrone’s Mets Blog and sums up each of the last two failed seasons.

Mike, from Planet of the Geeks, has created Lego versions of all sorts of professional athletes, including Carlos Delgado and David Wright, as you can see here:

…out…standing… well done, mike, well done indeed…

Update, 10:20 am:

Paulaecinc in the comment’s section writes:

“What is great about these lego peices is that you can play with them all year long, up until September, thats when they usually fall apart.”

…zing… well played, sir…

Not much to add, really.

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

Barack Obama and the moral imperative

I finally got around to listen to a podcast of Bill Moyers’ Journal from this past weekend and thought this exchange with Princeton University professor, Melissa Harris-Lacewll, was interesting and explained a lot about what will need to happen if progressives are to have influence over an Obama administration:

BILL MOYERS: You mentioned policy ills. And this gets me to the question of governance. So what do you, as progressives, as liberals, what do you expect of him that will fulfill your hopes for him, beyond the symbolism into the actual world of policy and decision making?

MELISSA HARRIS-LACEWELL: One of the images I’ve been using as we’ve been going around the country trying to place the King holiday in the context of a new Obama era is I’ve been using the image, iconic image of Barack Obama excuse me. Ah! Of Martin Luther King…

BILL MOYERS: There you go.

MELISSA HARRIS-LACEWELL: Right. Martin Luther King and Lyndon Johnson together in the White House. And I say to people, okay, where’s — if you can superimpose Barack Obama’s face onto one of these two characters, onto whose face would you project it? And most people say, “Oh, well, King.” And I say, “No, no, no, no. Barack Obama’s LBJ in this picture.”

We’ve elected him to the U.S. presidency. So the missing image is who will play the role of King? Because, in fact, the president needs Kings. I actually think it’s plural. It’s not a single King. But the myth-

BILL MOYERS: You mean that they need agitators out there-

MELISSA HARRIS-LACEWELL: That’s-

BILL MOYERS: -who are pressing them to do the right thing-

MELISSA HARRIS-LACEWELL: That’s exactly right.

BILL MOYERS: -as Lyndon Johnson said to Martin Luther King — go out there and make it possible for me to do the right thing.

Basically, it comes down to the idea that it is the people in this democracy who are responsible for pushing their elected representatives to act. That’s why I chafe at the use of the word leader when referring to the president and Congress. They must show leadership, I guess, but it is more important that they follow the imperatives laid down by the masses.

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.