MY DOOMED ATTEMPT AT BEING A LETTERHACK:

Media critic and writer of "What Liberal Media?" Eric Alterman writes about how the corporate media have successfully redefined the American political spectrum such that "far, loony right-wing" now means simply "conservative," "conservative" means "moderate," and "moderate-right" now means "liberal." "Liberal," of course, now means "crazy." Ordinarily, this intense euphemizing doesn't really confuse me. Recently, however, it doomed one of my few attempted forays into the mainstream press's letter pages.

Slate's "liberal" writer Emily Yoffe recently had an anti-peace movement essay published in the Houston Chronicle. Silly me, not being a reader of Slate, not realizing that she's supposedly "liberal," I just figured that because she refers to the peace movement as being "morally bankrupt," that she was yet another one of those loud mouthed, sermonizing conservative weirdos. I mean that's how the essay reads, for Christ's sakes!!!! But, no. She was supposedly speaking as a "liberal."

This, I think, is what probably doomed my letter hack response to the essay (if it ever had a chance to be printed at all...).

Anyway, for your reading enjoyment, I now post my ill-fated letter to the editor here. For what it's worth, I think that if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and swims like a duck, then it's probably dog poo. Or conservative, for that matter. My letter:

I am a proud signer of the NION statement and I deeply love America.

Whenever I hear one of those venomous, condescending, war-mongering, right-wing tirades against those "America hating" progressives, something always tugs at the back of my head: "the marketplace of ideas." The great philosophers, such as Locke, Hobbes, and Mill, who heavily influenced our country's founding fathers, expressed democracy's absolute and crucial need for vigorous debate. In other words, no "marketplace of ideas" means no democracy.

When a conservative tells me that I am "morally bankrupt" for doing what I believe is my patriotic responsibility, publicly expressing my vision for our grand nation, I am both sickened and perplexed. Accusing progressives of such a thing only serves to stifle "the marketplace of ideas," without which our democracy cannot survive. If any group should be called "morally bankrupt," it is the multitude of self-important, snobbish shouters on the right; they try to destroy debate, and, therefore, destroy democracy.

From this point of view the true near-treasonous behavior is coming from the likes of Emily Yoffe, Anne Coulter, or Fox News' Bill O'Reilly who told peace activist Jeremy Glick to "Shut up! Shut up!" live on TV in the wildly popular "no spin zone."

This is basic Civics 101. Doesn't anybody else get this?

Well, I think that at least I get it...

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