Showing posts with label letters. Show all posts
Showing posts with label letters. Show all posts

Lynch mobs and Paddy wagons

Posted by Unknown | Posted in , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Posted on Thursday, April 19, 2012

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The ignorance of some individuals astounds me. Einstein once said that, "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." I tend to agree with his brash assessment of humanity, for the most part. It's easy to when there are rather shining examples of stupidity all around us today.

Whether it's always been like this, and only recently have we begun to thrust these morons into the spotlight and give them undeserved recognition, or if we are, as a nation, falling backwards in mental evolution is a question for another time.

What has sparked this sudden burst of misanthropic ranting is a letter to the editor of The Times Leader which has called for the repeal of Civil Rights. The writer of this brilliantly moronic letter, one Sean M. Donahue, contends that all crime in Luzerne county stems from "Hispanic migrants from Central and Latin America". He then goes on to propose a solution to the crime problem:

Writer: Repeal civil rights laws

Too many elected officials are too afraid to speak the truth. The people who brought crime to this area are Hispanic migrants from Central and Latin America. The only way to get rid of crime is to get rid of them.
Democracy allows us the use of peaceful means to repeal the civil rights acts so that we can do just that. Instead of talking about it quietly, please sign an application for a petition for initiative to have the revocation of civil rights laws put on the Luzerne County agenda and eventually on a statewide referendum.
....but getting the revocation of civil rights on a statewide referendum will send a necessary and powerful message to both Harrisburg and Washington. 
He then goes on to make a rather appalling presumption:
The population of Hazleton and the Hispanic population cannot meld into one population. I am tired of hearing politicians and loudmouth business leaders say such garbage.
Sean M. Donahue
Hazleton
(Full Text)
It's incredible the level of absolute brainlessness that some individuals feel comfortable in displaying. First off, let me point out something rather perplexing about Mr. Donahue's idea. He says, "Instead of talking about it quietly, please sign an application for a petition...". Mr. Donahue, how much more quiet can you get than signing a slip of paper? You're not talking about anything at all, let alone talking quietly.

Community problems demand community discourse. And it stands to reason, by Mr. Donahue's blatant disregard for upstanding Hispanic members of his community, that he would not have them participate in such discourse. What better way to usher through his ridiculous ideas than to pass around an application to like-minded friends while keeping it on the hush hush.

What further boggles my mind is Mr. Donahue's assumption that repealing Civil Rights laws, ignoring all of the terrible repercussions this would have, could be the only solution to crime in his community. What, if anything, could this possibly accomplish toward his goals of making the community safer? Or, is public safety and crime rate simply the facade to something more basic. Namely, Mr. Donahue's contempt for the Hispanic community.

He contends that the Hispanic population and the Hazleton population cannot meld into one population? As if the two were separate. Mr. Donahue's rhetoric and segregational speech hearkens to the days of lynch mobs and "Paddy" wagons. What more can we expect from someone actively seeking to repeal Civil Rights laws. Shall we throw the Black population under the bus as well, Mr. Donahue? Care for a bit of anti-Semitism?

Only one simple fact needs to be stated here: What this country suffers from is ignorant individuals who seek to "solve" problems with quick-fix schemes without using an ounce of brainpower. It suffers from veiled prejudices, as it always has, and the beat of extremist war drums. Understanding, education, and thought are trampled on as though they are the gravest of sins. We heap attention onto the screaming, brainless mobs and ignore those with true ideas and wisdom.

Mr. Donahue, I urge you to pull your head out of your ass and re-examine your thought process. For the problem you wish to solve is not that of crime but that of multi-culturalism. Yes, there is crime perpetrated by Hispanic individuals within Luzerne county. There are also crimes perpetrated by African Americans, Asians, and your fellow vanilla-white man. Repealing Civil Rights is not the answer and neither are completely baseless, moronic ideas of segregation bolstered by prejudices like you yourself have outlined.

For every Hispanic who has committed a crime within Luzerne county and North East Pennsylvania, there are dozens more who have not. And I can safely say that without one ounce of actual research into crime statistics and population density with Hazleton or its surrounding areas.

For your own sake, Mr. Donahue, and the sake of good, intelligent citizens within the Commonwealth, I ask you to refrain from opening your mouth until you've formed an intelligent idea. This, I'm sure, will guarantee your silence for some time.



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Addenda 4-20-2012

Since the initial publishing of this post, I've come across another Sean Donahue rant of lunacy to The Times Leader. In this letter, Mr. Donahue attacks State Rep. Tarah Toohil over her failure to, "eradicate the immigrant and minority populations from Hazleton." In response, Mr. Donahue proposes to run for office on the platform of seceding from the nation if immigrants are not driven out and, amazingly, to instate "neo-Jim Crow" laws to be aggressively enforced.

Here is Mr. Donahue's letter to the editor from March 15th:


State Rep. Tarah Toohil has failed to eradicate the immigrant and minority populations from Hazleton. 
Prior to being elected, Toohil led us to believe that she would be an active champion of driving immigrants out of Hazleton. Since that time, she has done absolutely nothing to attain this goal. Toohil said that she would eliminate food ACCESS cards. Then, she apparently joined with the immigrant population to encourage white senior citizens to use the ACCESS card, too. 
Toohil led us to believe that she would address the issue of anchor babies by preventing them from attaining legal American citizenship but then refused to follow through on that agenda. 
Toohil also led us to believe that she would be a champion of spending cuts but then bragged that the Hazleton Area School District would receive no cuts in state funding, which meant that there would be no decrease in taxes. Toohil claimed that she would create jobs. Yet, all she has done is passively accommodate CAN DO Inc. and the very same employers who are giving jobs to the very same immigrants that the public of Hazleton elected her to get rid of in the first place. 
There is nothing about Toohil that espouses any conservative ideology. Instead, Toohil’s only concern seemingly is Toohil. Toohil is a chameleon. I am not. 
If voters write my name in on both the primary ballot and on the general election ballot for state representative of the 116th District, I will push legislation through the House to secede from the United States unless Congress forces all immigrants who entered the United States within the last three decades, and their children, to leave the country. 
I will demand secession unless the federal government ends all affirmative action programs for minorities, eliminates all forms of welfare for immigrants and adopts neo-Jim Crow laws that are to be aggressively applied to illegal immigrants until such a time that the illegal population can be successfully deported.
Sean M. Donahue
Hazleton
(Link to Letter)

My heart as an inkwell

Posted by Unknown | Posted in , , , , , , | Posted on Tuesday, March 22, 2011

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"More than kisses, letters mingle souls..." ~John Donne


Opening the mailbox to find a letter or a package addressed to me still ranks high in my top ten best ways to be surprised. This is why I find it extremely disheartening to know that letter writing has all but died off except in certain cases of writing soldiers or prisoners. E-mail is instantaneous and has made it possible for us to communicate, to anyone in the world, what used to take days or weeks. That's great if you need to send memos or other types of official correspondence (Did you get the TPS reports?). But what of deep, human connection? Who can hold an E-mail? Who can cherish it?

A letter is scattered with bits of the person who creates it. As if the composer carefully folds pages of their memories stained with ink from the well of their heart and seals it with the heat of their fingertips. E-mails come to your inbox while letters are received in the palms of your waiting hands. You can almost feel the letter pulsing within the envelope as you hold it before you, carefully pealing back its paper mouth. 

Never, in this day in age, did I think I'd experience this until I found another who treasured such simple pleasures. It was last year, in the heat of the summer, that Stephanie and I began what has become the most unbreakable and loving bond I have ever known. And how could it not have turned out so? Among so many things that attracted me to her, she spoke of names like Gibran and Nietzsche. Most people can't even pronounce Nietzsche. She introduced me to Rilke. She quoted Kerouac and I was hooked. As though Hemingway had fished me out of the lake and landed me upon Stephanie's dock. So, what would be more natural than two lovers of writers writing one another? 

E-mails would certainly not do, however. Try picturing Keats composing E-mails to Fanny Brawne on his iMac and you'll understand exactly where I'm coming from. If we wanted to share pieces of one another with each other, only ink and pulp would do. 

Every time the tip of my pen glides over the face of a page, I know that some bit of my being is contained within the curves and lines of my words. And, as I fold the pages of my letter evenly and seal them within the envelope, I know that they will be opened and looked upon as though it were my own eyes she were looking into. My own lips speaking the words recorded upon the paper.

I sit here tonight, opening and unfolding letters she has crafted and composed for me, and I feel as though the gentle loops of her handwriting spill out onto the bed next to me and construct her curves. The smell of her perfume still lingers upon the pages and fills my senses. And Stephanie is here next to me, speaking of memories, dreams, hopes and happiness. Before I fold it back into its envelope, I press my lips to hers and inhale that which she has sent over distances for me to hold.

These folded memories will stay with me forever. Never lost to the voids of cyber trash. Tucked neatly and safely away within an Oak box only after the scent of perfume fades and the beating heart of the writer remains.

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