Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2000 10:45:02 -0800
From: Vin_Suprynowicz@lvrj.com (Vin Suprynowicz)
Subject: Re: Stephanie, Mony and Taxis
To: stilld1@prodigy.net ("D.J. Kemp")
Cc: letters@lvrj.com
>A friend has been forwarding your columns to me for some time now, and
>most of them seem mildly interesting but annoyingly inflammatory. This
>column concerning Stephanie's letter, however, shows your need to stop,
>take a break, and decide what your message really is.
>
>After 15 years of working with children, I can guarantee you that with a
>response like that, no 'Stephanie' would ever write another letter, and no
>teacher of Stephanie would let their students correspond with a journalist
>like you for fear of quashing their students' enthusiasm. Sure, the
>spelling and grammer need attention, but that is pretty mild stuff and
>could be covered gently. The point is that the child had the guts to
>write this letter and pursue this interest, and you stepped on her like a
>stinkbug. You also speak back to her like a William F. Buckley wanna-be,
>instead of speaking in terms a young person (not a child, a young person)
>would understand. Your letter taught this child (and other young people
>who might be reading) not a lesson in civil liberties but a lesson in
>smart-ass response.
>I admire this kid for at least trying to pursue an interest in what her
>government is doing, as opposed to the common 6th grade interests of
>clothes, boys, and MTV icons. Do the right thing and respond in such as
>way as to further that interest, while gently pointing out grammer
>corrections that will help her communicate her ideas.
>
>That is, if you really want to forward your concepts and teach a younger
>generation, and not just sit in your pulpit and whine.
>
Dear D.J. Kemp --
Ha! Ha! That's great. These kids shouldn't have their errors pointed out
(errors not occurring in some hastily scribbled message, but in a formal,
signed, classroom-produced letter to the editor of a major metropolitan
newspaper), because it would damage their self-esteem!
And then you insist on seeing the problem as primarily involving "spelling
and grammer" (since the fault lies with the government welfare schools in
general, and not this particular child, I simply copied the young lady's
letter verbatim, affording her the added courtesy of keeping her surname
secret to spare her embarrassment, though I assure you we were under no
OBLIGATION to withhold that information) -- completely ignoring the main
substance of my observations, whih were the outright socialist notions
about government's role, which she and her classmates have come to accept
as foregone conclusions.
Come on, admit it, you're a paid propagandist in some branch of the youth
propaganda camps, aren't you? I bet you even took your degree in
"Education," after the grades you received in the more rigorous subject
areas (the ones where the instructors insisted there are actually such
things as "wrong answers") proved too damaging to YOUR self-esteem.
The "guts to write that letter?" It was a classroom project! Her salaried
government propagandist (in the USSR, at least the MVD used to forthrightly
honor such efforts by handing out bronze medals for "Master Propagandists")
got paid that day to take her through that little "exercise" from the
government-supplied "Census Kit."
"Pursue an interest in what her government is doing?" Do you think teacher
led a classroom discussion on the constitutional authorization for the
census, and asked the children whether they thought the goernment might
now be doing anything with the census NOT constitutionally authorized, and
whether that would be appropriate under a constitutional government of
"limited powers, specifically designated"?
Oh stop! Heeeeee haw! You're killing me!
Furthermore, if embarrassment was to be avoided, it was the responsibility
of that salaried government propagandist, and no one else, to make sure the
kids proofread their letters before sending them out. (They even have
keyboards and mice and electronic printers now -- I can tell from the
format of the pack of letters from Stephanie and her little chums -- all
provided at taxpayer expense to make corrections easy as pie, compared to
the tedious re-copying we had to do to "get it right" as youngsters.)
Finally, we taxpayers PAID that "teacher" to encourage her little middle
school charges to send out letters in which they misspelled such words as
"too," "sincerely," "taxes," and "money." (Should little Stephanie have
been promoted from the third to the fourth grade wthout mastering at least
the two-syllable words? From the fourth to the fifth?)
By the way, as to little Stephanie's "spelling and grammer" needing some
attention ... you might want to look up the spelling of that word
"grammer," your own self.
Thanks for making my day, D.J. Following your suggestion -- that exposure
discourages the proudly stupid -- I'll be sharing your missive with
others, in hopes it'll make their day, too.
Oh, if only "a response like that" could end the waste of our tax dollars
o this statist propaganda gulag. But just like that threat of a "$100
fine" should we fail to dutifully send in our forms ... you and your kind
have no intention of keeping this promise, either, do you?
-- Vin Suprynowicz
p.s. -- I attach below a much more thoughtful response, from a "recovering"
veteran of the youth propagnada camps
From: "Them" <hoohah@futureone.com>
To: <vin@lvrj.com>
Subject: "Its troo - U right reely gud."
Date: Thu, 30 Mar 2000 22:23:40 -0700
MIME-Version: 1.0
X-Priority: 3
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2919.6600
Dear Vin,
I relish all of your columns, and have just finished reading "Send in the
Waco Killers," which has, of course, resulted in my losing even more sleep
than I did before (and believe me, I wasn't sleeping so well before, since
Mark and I have been researching the white squirmy things under the fed-gov
rock for way too many years), but your latest column, 'To count all the
people we need to feed' is simply beyond wonderful.
As an ex-English teacher whom J.J. has billed as the SierraTimes.com "Local
School Marm," I applaud your response to the dear public fool, "Widdle
Stephanie." It touched every base and nerve, and set me positively a-tingle
with admiration. I taught 6th grade and high-school English for 10 years,
and I would have given that child an "F" on her pathetic missive to you --
for both language use and content. Gag.
I think the apostrophe issue is eventually going to lead to my demise;
everywhere I look -- even in such hallowed places as the Wall Street
Journal -- I see "it's" being used as a possessive, "its" being used to
represent "it is," and " 's" being stuck randomly on to "word's" to make
them plural.
"Its" enough to give a girl fatal "palpitation's."
Take care, be well, and keep tearing 'em a new one.
Tina Terry
PS - I've located, and shall be posting shortly on the editorial page of
SierraTimes.com, a piece dated 1960, from The New Republic about the
"intrusive" nature of the Census - a piece whih is couched in such glorious
language that reading it made me practically weep with delight. It employs
such phrases as: "How lush the federal jungle grows." Poor Stephanie and
her dumbed-down cohorts. I doubt they could even read it, let alone
understand or relish it. Our "taxi" dollars hard at work.
Vin Suprynowicz, vin@lvrj.com
"The evils of tyranny are rarely seen but by him who resists it." -- John
Hay, 1872
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed -- and
thus clamorous to be led to safety -- by menacing it with an endless series
of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." -- H.L. Mencken
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