linnposts.com

Once in a while I get letters in the mail excoriating me for my views. I have a policy about them since they are always sent anonymously. I throw them away.

As far as I am concerned, if you don’t have the courage to put your name or address on what you say, your views are not worthy of serious consideration.

But my wife happened to open one the other day from someone who identified herself only as ML. When she finished she handed it to me so I read it.

I decided to respond, only ML failed to identify herself fully or put a return address on the envelope (surprise, surprise), so I am using the only means available to do so, my blog.

ML let me have it with both barrels right from the start. In no uncertain terms she let me know that she did not like my response to George P’s rant re abortion even though my blog to which he responded was about Cecil the lion (you can read his comment posted on that blog).

“You didn’t like what he said because you have a ‘different agenda’ that you want to affirm,” she wrote. Hmm. She went on to say I was “not liberal enough to accept other viewpoints.”

Apparently posting what George P wrote, as I do with all comments good or bad, was not enough. Probably telling him to get his own blog when he failed to discuss what I wrote about was what got to her, leading her to conclude that I want everyone to think the way I do. Actually I wish they did, but I gave up on that a very long time ago.

She also said that I want “adulation” in order to feel good about myself. (As an aside, I’m not convinced writing a blog is an effective way to receive adulation, but that is a subject for another time.)

Then she went off on abortion just like George P did, asserting that women are mere incubators for babies and that my use of the phrase “the mother’s body” was scientifically wrong. Hmm again.

Despite the fact that a fetus cannot survive without the mother’s body before 22 weeks, ML believes a pregnant woman is incidental to the nine month process that allows a baby to develop its own DNA and fingerprints. I’m guessing most mothers don’t feel that way, or doctors.

Next she jumped all over Planned Parenthood, as George did indirectly, arguing that it does “haggle” over the price of selling baby parts. I had thought maybe she was willing to budge on this charge since she begin her sentence with the word “apparently,” but my hopes were dashed when she proceeded as if her claim was an established fact.

It’s not. The opposite is actually true. Several states including conservative Indiana have investigated the charge and concluded it was without merit. Like Fix News that I suspect she watches, she didn’t let those facts get in the way of her opinion.

She ended her “letter” by telling me that I must think I am God (not sure what prompted her to say that), concluding that I obviously want her and everyone like her to “bow to [MY] opinion.” My first thought when I read that was, now there’s an idea.

But she wasn’t finished. She speculated that if George P did in fact get his own blog (as I suggested) she was sure I would not bother to read it. Okay, she got me there. I wouldn’t.

But after reading her “letter” I couldn’t help but wonder if ML really understands what a blog is. According to Merriam-Webster online a blog is “a Web site on which someone writes about personal opinions, activities, and experiences.”

I wonder what part of “personal opinions” she doesn’t get? Or does she suffer from the idea many conservatives have, especially religious ones, that if you disagree with them you are infringing on their freedom of speech?

If the latter, I confess once again that I am guilty as charged. Moreover, I have no plans to stop criticizing views with which I disagree.

That’s what makes writing a blog fun, and at this point I am having way too much of it to quit.