WUI (Writing under the influence)

Remember "She is Not a Woman; She is a Republican"?  This is a second installment on how progressives celebrate diversity.

My country is broke. Five Forest Grove cops and five Washington county sheriff deputies fire their guns and the target lives. Democrats are arguing about the number of bullets civilians should have in their guns. I can't take it anymore and write the following letter [scroll down to 3rd letter] to the editor of my local paper:

Ten supposedly highly trained professionals fire their weapons and the bad guy still lives. If Sen. Feinstein and other well-intentioned liberals have their way, I will be stuck with seven bullets in my gun trying, in the middle of the night, to protect my family from one, two or maybe even three bad guys. What happens if I miss just five times?

The country is broke.  Fix that first, you idiots.

Two weeks later I get this letter in the mail:



Not a big deal.  This is normal.  This is what I see on all conservative websites every day in the comments section.  I've been writing letters to the editor of my paper since at least 2004 debunking all the usual progressive myths; especially about FDR and LBJ, and how we are supposedly better for having had those two as our presidents.

 But for some reason this particular letter hit closer to home than usual.  I thought I knew the people the author was talking about.  So I decided to respond and, to his credit, the editor and publisher of our local paper agreed to print the letter even though it was anonymous together with my reply:

In a letter to the editor in published in the Jan. 30 issue of the News-Times, I bemoaned the fact that Sen. Diane Feinstein and other Democrats in Congress, not being quite satisfied with regulating how much salt should be in our food or how big our soft drinks should be, were now trying to ration the number of bullets we should be allowed to use while defending our homes from intruders. I ended with what I thought was rather helpful and witty advice (and somewhat therapeutic, I might add):

"The country is broke. Fix that first, you idiots!"

A couple of weeks later I received an anonymous letter from somebody none too pleased with that suggestion.

I have to say, I was flattered. Sen. Feinstein, was that you? Were you so moved by what I had to say that you put a first-class stamp on this bile and dropped it in a mail box? I don’t think it will save the U.S. Postal Service from bankruptcy but it certainly strokes my ego. At the same time, I am somewhat disappointed that my friends — and I call them friends rather reluctantly — left you under the impression that your vitriol (or their sneers) could somehow make me conform to your stereotype of an obedient immigrant.

So I’m crawling from under my rock yet again to rectify this misunderstanding. It may be hard — I was born Polish, you know — but having once passed the U.S. citizenship test (and it was in English, of all things) I have high hopes. So (as Mark Levin, a true constitutional scholar and renowned historian often says) pay attention, you may learn something!

After living here (legally) for a quarter century; putting myself through college (and getting a useful degree); paying my student loans off completely and on time without whining and moaning about it (or breaking windows in downtown Portland); working and paying (a lot of) taxes; not ever being upside-down on my mortgage (or accepting cash for clunkers); voting in each election (maybe not the way you'd like me to); and otherwise striving to be a good citizen, I’ve earned the right to call out any politician for attempting to fundamentally transform my adopted homeland.

I may not know American history as well as some university professors in this town and I’m well-versed only in The Culture of Personal Responsibility and Charity having miserably failed Dependency and Entitlement 101. However, as a survivor of one progressive experiment called socialism, I feel obligated to protect my four children (carbon footprint alert!) from anything that can cause them harm, including your vile ideology.

Is it really beyond the pale to ask if some of the ideas that progressives have been selling (for votes) for the past 80 years might be the cause of our problems today? Is it really fascistic (I thought you were projecting there a little) to point out that those who are chiefly responsible for the mess we are in are doing nothing constructive to fix it?

Is that multi-culti crap, shoved down our collective throat at every opportunity, out of fashion all of the sudden? What about “Coexist” and “Celebrate Diversity”? (“Tolerate” would be good enough; God knows I don’t ask for much.) Does living by those lofty ideals mean nothing more (just as I always suspected) than slapping a few bumper stickers on the rear of your car? (Right next to “Hate is Not a Family Value.”)

Don’t bother answering; the questions are rhetorical and your contempt for liberty self-evident. Your letter makes my case better than I could ever do it myself. In a way, I’m grateful you sent it even though it made my seven-year-old cry (but it’s all for the children, isn’t it?). I just hope that my immigrant brothers and sisters, especially the newcomers, are also paying attention. You are welcome in this country only if you submit to your masters and don’t stray too far off the plantation.