Though I initially shared sympathy with the writer(as does Walker Percy), she soon began all the silly rhetoric one comes to expect from people who do not know their history; she blindly asserted that the Church was an oppressor of reason, that the Renaissance was a secular endeavour, and, most odious of all, that the Dark Ages ran right up until the Italians began a "rebirth of civilization."
Since it was Sunday evening and I was feeling a bit silly, I dashed off an e-mail accusing Ms. Bentz(for that was her name) of ignorance and slander. Pleasantly enough, it was printed in the Thursday edition!
And, lo! a response came to me vitrtually the same day! (edited for privacy concerns)
Dear letter writer:
Thank you for submitting your recent letter to the Denver Rocky
Mountain
News. The letter appeared on Thursday, August 12. The following
correspondence -- in response to your letter -- was emailed to our office,
asking that we forward it on to you.
Thank you for reading and writing to the News.
Tamara Smith Roldan
Commentary Department
letters@denver-rmn.com
Here's the letter to Kevin J. Jones that you said you would forward:
Dear Kevin,
The Rocky Mountain News said they would forward this to you.
I want to commend you on your superb letter in the August 12 News.
When I read the nonsense by Krista Bentz a few days earlier, I thought to
reply to it myself, making the same points you made. When I read your
letter, I was glad I saved myself the time and trouble.
Though I have been teaching the English language for 37 years (and
have written a grammar book and a spelling book), I could not have done
the job better than you -- or, indeed, as well as you, who could comment
personally on Bentz's "quality education" at Arvada West.
But the same-school connection was just frosting. Your knowledge of
history and your (apparently self-taught) writing prowess were the
substance of a wonderful letter, and the Chesterton quote was the coup de
grace. There can't be many people your age who even know who Chesterton
was, let alone what he wrote.
Congratulations.Tom (last name removed)
My misadventures have continued yet again! While perusing the Sunday paper, I found that my freshman representative in the U.S. House had co-authored an editorial on the population bomb scare, promoting the UN Population Fund and USAID population control programs. Since I have documented these programs' abuses, I felt compelled to write in a response. This was published on October 24, 1999, a Sunday:
I had the opportunity to speak to Rep. Udall face to face about the article and my letter. A transcript of our encounter is available here.
