Reader reponse to columnist Cheri DelBrocco’s column “Bush’s Privatization Guru: a Nine-Year-Old!” has been brisk. Here’s a sampling:
Subject: mad as hell
mad as hell was excellent
tell CHERI DELBROCCO to keep up the good work
luis collie
(no address indicated
Hi:
I wanted to tell Ms. Delbrocco that I liked her column on the nine-year old shill for privatization, but her email address couldn’t be found. After searching through some web pages for it, I know why! Please relate to her my appreciation for her views and her temerity in expressing them in–I’m sorry to stereotype here–Memphis. I was compelled to write because her final line about The Emperor with No Clothes, resonates with my bumper sticker I affixed to my car, made myself: “W: Emperor with no clues.”
By the way: no crank here. Just a left-coast college professor reading Buzz Flash on a Tuesday night, and this is the first of her writing I’ve read. Good stuff!
Sincerely,
P. Kevin Parker
Associate Professor
Orange Coast College
Costa Mesa, CA
President,
Academic Senate
kparker@occ.cccd.edu
Subject: good editorial
I read your editorial (linked through www.buzzflash.com) on the 9-y old
social security ‘expert’. It was a nice editorial. When I read these
rare editorials that call into question Bush’s ethics and/or policies I
always try to email the author and congratulate them, because I assume
the right-wing hate machine sends plenty of hate-filled emails….I
think the authors should know there are people out there who appreciate
and support the all-too-rare dissenting public voice.
Pat Heiden
(no address indicated)
Re: “MAD AS HELL”
I, as much as anyone, appreciate the vehemence of Cheri Delbrocco’s anti-Bush article. However, the first paragraph of her article is offensive to me — both as a linguist and as a native ‘country boy’. To suggest that Bush’s inarticulateness is, IN ITSELF, a sign of ‘stupidity’ is, in a word, stupid.
Non-standard or regional pronunciations — such as “nucular” or “Amurika” — are NOT an indicator of inferior intellect. There is no evidence to back that up. (And a writer in TENNESSEE, of all places, should appreciate this as well as anyone.) Likewise, the use of accidental, awkward utterances, such as “misunderestimated”, points to ‘inferior intellect’ no more than race or economic class do.
Ms. Delbrocco should try to avoid such elitism next time. The choir she preaches to might enjoy it, but it’s insulting and alienating to inarticulate, smart people everywhere (good, honest, hard-working folks who happen not to have been born with ‘silver tongues’). If there are other reasons to label Bush ‘stupid’, then, by all means, she should knock herself out.
David Donnell
Brooklyn, NY
(smalltown Missouri native)
Why would W exploit a nine-year-old in his quest to destroy Social Security? The answer is obvious: To believe that private accounts are a good idea, it helps to also believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. Once the harsh realities of this world are understood, a person can’t possibly be in favor of this ruinous plan. A plan, I might add, that hasn’t even been articulated publicly, presumably because the large, gaping holes in it won’t stand up to public scrutiny.
I hope this kid uses whatever money he is being paid wisely, he’s going to need it in about 55 years.
Jamie Cowan
(no address indicated)
