I will submit this to the Beacon, but I’ll also be toning it down because it’s rather harsh and biting.  But hey, if they’re going to be blatantly ignorant about subjects and then pass it off as so called “good writing”, well, that’s just not going to fly.  Without further adieu, here it is:  (CF readers will get this- no one else will really)

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Dear Editors,

What could possibly be the reason to impose limits on how many letters one can write to the editor?  I would answer my own question for the benefit of some people who may not understand yet: it gets dull week after week.  I wholeheartedly agree with J B Anthony in his suggestion that this would be taken to the internet.  We are  fortunate to live in a time when one can create a website for absolutely nothing and get their opinions out.  With no restrictions on how often you can write and a huge potential readership, what more could you ask for?  Especially for things that do not pertain so much to our town as our country and the world that lies outside.

One of the problems I see in some of these letters is the fact the author cannot overcome their own perceived ingenuity.  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.  In the grand scheme of things feeding yourself bits of congratulatory wit only serves to set yourself apart as someone who cannot look past their own nose to the people who have not spent their entire life in a white farming community.  In fact I’ve seen quite a few excellent letters to the editor and you’re not only praising yourself, you’re disregarding and disrespecting others (whether you mean to or not).

And, ah, the subject of murdering unborn children.  While I do tend to view things more liberally, I’m not quite Pro-Choice.  I’m not quite Pro-Life though either, because as a male, I cannot bear children (surprising, no?).   Therefore I’d hesitate to make any judgment as I have never had my stomach engorged with that of a fetus.  Have you ever carried a child Mr. Byrne?  You seem to be an expert in what women should do.  I like to make sure I don’t get bloated after a meal by eating too much, so I know I wouldn’t be a very happy person if I had to carry that feeling multiplied by 100 for nine months.  But I digress, I’m sure some men might know about carrying a little extra weight comfortably.  This is America after all.  And if I may suggest, sir, I feel more for the soldiers we’ve lost in Iraq and their grieving families.  I’m not going to compare numbers though, I don’t frankly care about statistics.  Life is life.  My point is this: you cannot pardon a man who is responsible for the needless deaths of our young adults simply because he “protects” unborn children.  And yet, he didn’t outlaw abortion, did he?  It still continues no matter what you think of our President.

I have a suggestion now directly for the Beacon.  I propose we do some ‘down and dirty’ investigative reporting.  Let us kidnap a Mr. LoPresto in the dead of night, strip him, photograph him, the publish the results.  Since it seems that this is not torture, he should be able to stand the simple humiliation.  We all know he’s withstood his writings being published publically.  Frankly if anyone still thinks that Iraq had a connection to terrorists they have been completely and totally ignoring the media for at least the past 4 years.  First it was “weapons of mass destruction” that we started the war for (but there were none) and then the term “War on Terror” started to be bandied about.  Well, congrats to Bush’s public relations.  The masses ate it up.  The September 11th attacks had nothing, and will never have anything, to do with Iraq.  I’m sorry that you apparently didn’t do your research, but excuse is not going to fly if you’re willing to keep the same lies going.  The logic in the quote you started your letter with is greatly flawed, you’ve just proven it yourself.  No matter how many times you write about the Al Qaeda and Iraq War connections, they’re just not going to simply appear to justify your points.

Personally, I don’t advocate the right or the left.  I advocate intelligence.  I advocate information.  I advocate the truth.  It just happens that the people who are blatantly in the wrong happen to be coincidently on the right.  I suggest writers check their wit at the door and bring some knowledge for us to ponder over.  Do we want to continue to be a nation of ignorance, acceptors of half truths and smoke in mirrors?  This may be the point Mr. Byrne was looking for, I’m sure an educated society could make an educated choice on abortion.  Or war.  Or writing letters to the editors.

Yours truly,

Paul *******

‘08 Senior

Ok, first I noticed that the Blackout single ‘Gimme More’ was really catchy.  And now ‘Piece of Me’ is even catchier (and has a decent point, at least for being a Spears pop song).  New guilty pleasure, and I may be on my way to buying the CD…  Crazy huh?

School formal was tonight, it went ok.  I went out shopping with Mark all day before that, it wasn’t supposed to be long, but he just had to buy $200 of stuff…  That kid goes through money like nothing else.  Actually it’s his credit card, and his Hungarian parents foot the bill.  I can’t imagine how much longer he will be able to get a bunch of Hollister, Abercrombie, AE, etc stuff before the kabosh is put on his plastic.

But yeah, it turned into a big adventure at Burnsville Center.  Then we drove around looking for an Arbys (even though there’s one in the food court…) and finally found it in Apple Valley.  After that, we went to  Target to check if they had some clay for my project which they didn’t.  So on the way back home I ran into Micheal’s real quick and got some.  No idea if how it’ll work, but hopefully well.

Then I came home for an hour, got ready, and went to Mark’s house to watch a movie.  We wanted Grace and Chris to come but I don’t actually have Grace’s number and Chris was over at her house, and there’s a gazillion people in this town with her last name.  So that fell through, and it was just Mark, his two dogs, a cat missing an eye, and me.  It was pretty fun.  He seems to think that the movie Mr Deeds is the most funny thing ever.  Sometime I’ll have to watch ‘There’s Something About Mary’ with him, THAT is true comedic genius (so is the movie Borat).

After that I went home to pick up my sister while Mark got ready, then we picked him up, then on to the actual formal.  And we were an hour late after all that stuff.  Ohhhh well.  Basically there were a lot of people that I saw and was glad to be around and stuff, but there were a few songs that hit key karaoke memories in Japan which definitely did not put me in a good mood, etc etc.  So I didn’t have the best time, but Sarah seemed to enjoy herself and poor Mark just stood there.  He did dance for the last, like, 15 minutes though.  He’s not really into the dances all that much.  I’m not sure if he would’ve gone unless I told him he had to.

So yep.  Now it’s 2:22AM and I think my parents just got home from their party.  G’night.  I’m sort of tired.