31
Jan
My letter was published
Step one in world domination: completed.
Heh, I am pretty proud of myself though. Mainly for the fact that the two men I addressed get to read it, not really that I thought it was all that amazing. Thanks for everyone who participated in the great debate via Facebook.
Oh, and by the way Minnesotans: FEBRUARY 5TH! CAUCUS! BE THERE! (Obama needs you!)
My personal take on the letter is as follows if you’re intersted:
I like the first paragraph, but then you say:
“I’m sorry Mr. Byrne, but this is a small puddle and if you had experience with anything outside I don’t personally think you’d have such a big ego, nor the same political views. I’ve been to Japan. South Korea. Singapore. Mexico. Canada.”
That came off as a bit arrogant and I’m sure you alienated over 1/2 of the CF population that doesn’t travel. As one who has traveled extensivly, I find it rewarding, but I don’t deem it necessary to travel in order to have a valid opinion (if that’s what you were trying to say, I wasn’t clear).
Your next paragraph about abortion is a little muddled in my humble opinion. You state you don’t want think you should have an opinion on abortion since you are a male and are not burdened with the responsibility of carrying the child. For those on the pro-life side the issues is the definition of “life” and when it starts, so who has to take care of the fetus/child is irrelevant because most people would agree that burden of parenting isn’t reason enough to kill a child out of the womb. The argument comes down to when “life” starts between pro-choice and pro-life sides.
Then you tie in Iraq, and that’s another reason your point gets muddled and lost on most readers.
Sorry, I have more un-asked for comments on that letter, but I have to run.
Nathan
February 4th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
Are you from CF at all…?
Anyways, I didn’t mean to come off as arrogant in the first paragraph, but I definitely see where you’re coming from. He mentioned that he hasn’t really traveled and I just wanted to entrench my point that people that have traveled may have a broader interpretation of or that he may be overstepping his bounds if he knows his views are limited yet he’s still willing to shout them to the world.
And I suppose my abortion paragraph was muddled because of my lack of a solid opinion one way or another. I just think that for a man to make such strong statements against abortion is rather odd, being that he has no child bearing abilities. I used to be strong pro-life and I’m actually aware of the beliefs and that children can easily be given up for adoption rather than aborted and such. I didn’t mean to come off ignorant.
And yes, the Iraq bit was just thrown in to compare body counts. I fail to understand how Bush can be Pro-”LIFE” yet he started a war under false pretenses which has resulted in the DEATHS of countless AMERICAN citizens and IRAQI citizens. It’s rather hypocritical to me.
If you’re not from CF, or if you are and haven’t been following the ‘letter wars’, things may be a bit more confusing. There are only a few people who actually pay as much attention to them as me, thus I had to give it my all in one letter that mixed a lot of subjects (too many no doubt) together at one time.
Sorry for any confusion!
- Paul
February 4th, 2008 at 8:14 pm
Regarding the first paragraph I don’t think it was much about having a valid opinion as it was Mr. Byrne thinking his opinion was the only good opinion. In the letter Paul was responding to Mr. Byrne said something about being the biggest fish in this little pond.
February 5th, 2008 at 8:29 am
Hey Paul,
Yes, I am from CF, but I’m sure you don’t know me, I’ve been out of town for the last 9 years after I graduated, but follow the paper, that’s how I came across this website.
I found both sides very annoying as well, and you were right when you said these sort of debates are meant for the internet.
I too was annoyed by the lack of logic and overuse of rhetoric in the letters. I think your letter was fine (not that I agreed with it), I just think you tried to tackle too much in one letter (but if you tried to space it out, you would just become “one of them” I suppose).
Anyways, I better get back to work, I’ll commment on your Obama blog again a little later.
PS Isn’t technology great? You can throw up your thoughts on the internet and some jackass like me can stumble across them and take shots at your various positions from the comfort of home.
February 5th, 2008 at 8:57 am
Ashley would be completely correct.
And yes, I love technology. Writing would be extremely boring if there was no one to contest it. Which is why the internet seems to be a perfect medium.
Over on Facebook I occasionally get all my friends riled up into making a huge list of comments about these blogs, it’s rather interesting.
February 5th, 2008 at 10:15 am