Readers:
You’ll see from the date on this letter that I received it a short while ago. I said to the letter’s writer that I would publish it in a timely fashion, but I had an emergency family matter to attend to and did not have the opportunity to post the letter.
Once things calmed down, I thought that the time for this news item had passed, but judging from last week’s rant during the City Council meeting’s public comment time (for which the citizen had to be removed), this matter is still in the public consciousness.
I want to remind readers that I will consider any letter to the editor, from any point of view, that is thoughtfully prepared, free of personal attack and that does not spread any form of hate or intolerance.
And now, finally, the letter. I apologize for the delay.
~The Editor
Gurdon Miller
Sierra Madre, CaliforniaFebruary 12, 2007
Ms Fay. Angus
Sierra Madre, CaliforniaMs Angus:
Thank you for bringing to everyone’s attention the web site you discussed the other night at the City Council meeting. I checked it out and found it amusing, and the satire cleaver and apt. I can see how one might find it a bit risque, but it is mild compared with what can be found on TV or at the cinema.
Blasphemy, if present on the site, has not been a crime in the Occident since the 18th Century, although I understand in Afghanistan, Iran, and elsewhere, they execute blasphemers, perhaps by stoning, although that may be reserved for adulteresses or women and girls who go to school.
Separation of church and state has guided our republic since its founding. I strongly object to your injection of religion into the political discourse. Not only is to do so un-American, it is divisive. The regrettable attempt by members of the Council to pander to the religious right by passing a religiously based and unconstitutional definition of family, comes to mind. So, too, does the attempt by the 1 Carter developers to mis-characterize opposition to their project as religious intolerance. Of course it doesn’t help that the GOP-controlled Congress passed legislation designed to force local governments to approve religious facilities without regard to their land use impacts.
I hope, in future, you will refrain from poisonong the public debate with contrived and irrelevant religous diatribes.
Sincerely yours,
CC:
Mountain Views News Magazine
Mount Wilson Observer
Sierra Madre Weekly
Gurdon Miller
(address removed)
Sierra Madre, California 91024
March 5, 2007
Ms Fay Angus
(address removed)
Sierra Madre, California 91024
Dear Ms Angus,
I am writing to express my extreme distress at the utterly unconscionable things about you that have recently been posted on the internet. What may have been mildly racy, if juvenile content in earlier posts has degenerated into gratuitously vulgar, nasty personal vindictive that no civilized person can condone.
Such malicious savaging of the decent and public-spirited person you are debases public discussion of important community issues and must certainly discourage those who might be subjected to such calumny from political involvement. Perhaps that is the author’s intent.
In any event, I hope you understand my earlier communication to you to have had its basis in deeply personally held views about religion and politics. Unfortunately, whatever might have come from a civilized exchange on this topic has been foreclosed by brownshirted thuggishness.
Yours truly,
PS:
Mountain Views News Magazine
Mount Wilson Observer
Sierra Madre Weekly
[…] As another example of Sierra Madre wackiness, a satirical blog mentioned by Foothill Cities multiple times in the past must also figure into the mix. As those old posts suggest, the Cumquat started out rough around the edges (but amusing at times) until it degenerated, reaching its lowest point with a vile personal attack against one of the women who appeared at the city council to decry it. This caused even defenders of the satirical blog to change their tune, as these two recent letters to the editor reflect. (More angry local blogging here). […]