I know the woman who wrote the letter in the Post-Dispatch that I commented on last Thursday. Her letter was published on Wednesday, so she was not surprised when she received a letter in the mail on Thursday from an anonymous writer who has commented on every letter she’s published over the last ten or fifteen years. Her husband gets similar letters.
She figures it’s the same guy anyway. It’s the same puerile sentiments and handwriting, though his spelling has greatly improved over the years. (He still hasn’t acquainted himself with the use of periods, though.)
She gives the writer credit for being literally as dependable as the U.S. Postal Service. She’s spoken to other people who receive the same dubious attention whenever they publish a letter, so who knows how much moola this character has dropped on the Postal Service over the last few decades.
If she ever gets a letter published and doesn’t get a response from him, she’ll figure he either died or suffered a massive stroke. At first, his mean spirited letters made her nervous, but by now she almost feels a perverse affection for the dipshit. So go ahead and sign your letters, mister. She won’t sic the cops on you.
…he/she would be famous!
rightwing rag, West Magazine, that those of us in West County receive gratis. Unlike you, I’ve never had crank letters in direct response to my epistles – but I do get a gloating/insulting letter, also anonymous, stuck into my mailbox (not sent through the mail) every time there is a Republican electoral victory of any sort. I always grin and remember who it is that throws tantrums and gloats – children.
Of course, I don’t downplay the latent threat inherent in these nasty scribblings. Such angry people often become a little unbalanced. I have experienced several instances of property vandalism that most likely stem from random misbehavior of poorly socialized local teens, but which, nevertheless, leave me somewhat nervous.
I post at this blog without using my full name although I suppose it wouldn’t be to hard to figure it out. Several in the local press have been sniping at bloggers who chose to be anonymous, saying it is the only reason we feel free to say the things we do. I have no problem owning my opinions, but hesitate to use my name only because, unlike the trad journalists, I offer them at an identified progressive site and feel that we are more of a target. I don’t trust the equilibrium of some of the more extreme rightwing types I have met locally.
I used to get envelopes with articles from right-wing papers after my letters were published in a rural paper. No notes, just articles that, I guess, were meant to enlighten me. The address was written in what looked like an older person’s scrawl. I assumed it was a man, but I don’t know why. After awhile I stopped opening them and just recycled the paper. They don’t come any more, and I think my man died. I miss the regularity of receiving those envelopes even though I didn’t open them. Oh well.
I’m glad my husband and I have different last names and the phone is listed in his name. I like that little bit of protection from threatening phone calls. My bumper stickers get me in enough trouble without lunatics calling me in the middle of the night.
I’ve also received those anonymous letters after publishing in the P-D letters to editor. I’ve never gotten one via mail, though: they’re always placed [illegally] in my mailbox, no stamp, no return address, no signature. The worst had a very threatening tone and anti-semitic language. The difference between these people and me is that I sign my name to my opinions and take responsibility. Perhaps, at a time when political rhetoric is a hot topic, those of us who have received these letters should get together and write a letter to the editor about this phenomenon. Any takers? Contact me at gloriasb@swbell.net
Although you can imagine the quantity being greater due to running for Congress twice and State Rep. once.
In my last race, I rec’d a series of anonymous letters telling me to distance myself from a local woman environmental and grassroots leader — or else! She is an honest and caring individual interested in preventing over-development of flood plains, and there was no way I was going to throw her under a bus. Also sent to me were a bunch of anonymous letters exposing all sorts of personal and damaging details about my Democratic primary opponent, which I chose not to act on, because I never wanted to win a seat by engaging in a smear campaign and/or spending money on spreading a message that didn’t speak to exactly what I wanted to accomplish on behalf of my future constituency. As was reported here on Show Me, in my race I was a lone traveler on the “campaign high road”, so-to-speak. Sadly, there were some Democrats that actively supported this kind of smear campaigning with substantive campaign contributions. If we cannot demand a level of basic ethical behavior on the part of our party candidates, and do so by controlling our support and contributions accordingly, what alternative are we as progressives really offering?
We talk alot about a progressive moral outlook on the political issues of the day — and contrast those with people who write deceptive distortions of history, like FOX News or some in the Tea Party, but how does that hold water when Democrats finance the same kind of behavior in our own ranks?
The least we should do, is back up our rhetoric by not actively amplifying the same kind of behavior we decry.
and I got a phone call. A voice message.
And I thought … really? People really don’t know that the word “Letter” in Letter to the Editor means all parts of this conversation are supposed to occur in the written form? Really?