From the April 27 copy of This is TRUE email. Subscriptions are available at www.thisistrue.com
Please note the material below is copyrighted, and is quoted here under the fair-use laws for discussion purposes only.
Up until this point, I've gotten only the freebie edition from him. But I'm signing up for a Premium (eg paid) subscription, and telling him why. Anyone want to join me?
pax
REGARDING THE "UPSKIRT" story, I hear that the public outcry over the politicking caused the Washington politicians to get the bill passed -- proving once again that an angry block of voters can get the right thing done. Now all I have to do is get enough people mad about "zero tolerance" and.... -- Randy Cassingham
Please note the material below is copyrighted, and is quoted here under the fair-use laws for discussion purposes only.
LAST WEEK I RAN several stories of women refusing to be crime victims; they protected themselves with guns (twice) and a baseball bat (once). I theorized that I'd get a lot of angry mail. I tried to blunt that a bit by running a letter from one of the Premium subscribers, Paul in New Jersey, who challenged readers with "I wonder whether you'll get any arguments that are NOT based on fear, ignorance, and junk science."
There wasn't much. There were plenty of people who accused me of being "pro-gun". While it's nice to have a change from being accused of being anti-whatever, it's not much of an improvement. VERY few of the letter writers understood that the stories and commentary weren't pro or con anything at all; they were, rather, meant to do what TRUE does second best: provoke thought and debate. (I'd like to think that its "first- best" function is to provide entertainment.)
Yet here's a few examples of the kind of mail I got. David in Illinois: "You've crossed the line from amusing to propagandist, and so I'm going to unsubscribe." John in the U.K.: "I've enjoyed your fairly level- headed and straight view of the world until you got on to the NRA podium and took up the good old American 'I've got a gun therefore I'm right' attitude. I'm unsubscribing." Duane in Ontario, Canada was eloquent with: "You a--hole, take a look at the murder stats. I actually feel sorry for people like you. People who don't recognize that their need for guns is their own fear and inadequacy." Yeah, name-calling is a thoughtful debate technique! Let alone jumping to conclusions: I have a "need for guns" because of my "fear and inadequacy"? Gee: I haven't carried a gun since I was a sworn sheriff's deputy, and that lack has caused me no negative emotions whatever. No, the emotion here is quite obviously Duane's.
Most people didn't bother to write, but just voted with their feet --
*hundreds* of people unsubscribed, which I just can't quite understand. They love the stories in issue after issue, but when ONE issue has a two or three stories that hit a hot button for them, even though the stories take NO position whatever on the topic, they can't stand the thought of debating the issue -- they have to run and hide their eyes from the possibility that someday there might be another one. That's awfully sad; they can't just enjoy the stories they like and skip the ones they don't? Who loses? They do. And society loses when its voters can't risk the chance of witnessing a brief debate on an important topic. Oh well -- I tried, even though I knew what would happen.
I really did get a huge amount of VERY interesting mail, including some thoughts on why I shouldn't have been surprised by the reaction. Normally by now I'd have the letters up on a page on TRUE's web site, but since I'm out of town I'm quite behind on things, so watch for a URL next week. The page will have the three stories in question too, so (if you missed or forgot them) you can judge for yourself if people went overboard. Sorry to be a tease, but when you're meeting and schmoozing 17 hours a day for several days straight, something has to give....
Up until this point, I've gotten only the freebie edition from him. But I'm signing up for a Premium (eg paid) subscription, and telling him why. Anyone want to join me?
pax
REGARDING THE "UPSKIRT" story, I hear that the public outcry over the politicking caused the Washington politicians to get the bill passed -- proving once again that an angry block of voters can get the right thing done. Now all I have to do is get enough people mad about "zero tolerance" and.... -- Randy Cassingham