Reply #257: Hello, Pallas, H2O and all: I'm going to try my hand at a letter. [View All]

[iconoclastic cat]

Not this second, mind you, because I've only been awake for fifteen minutes.

H2O Man, I was thinking about your clarity yesterday, and I wondered if you might be the one to prod us into action, and here you are, doing just that.

When I look around at my 900 or so posts, I wonder, what have I done? I send up a signal across the ether, and wait for someone to flash a signal back. H2O Man and Pallas, however, have suggested a way to have a real effect.

Here is what I have been thinking: while the readers of this thread, myself included, know a little about these issues, we might find ourselves bogged down in days of research if we try to make sure our assertions are correct. To help in this effort, I think there should be a sub-thread in which we draft, critique and edit our letters. This way, the end results will still be original, but the essential information and message will not be lost.

I think that we do need to compile a list of objectives and topics as an aid, but we must try to be somewhat original in these letters. I have had to listen to Republicans parrot each other for so long that I have become unable to tolerate that mode of discourse. "Talking points" are not supposed to be a script, but I have noticed that every time one of these Bushco sycophants starts talking, they sound like they have everything memorized. I have been most impressed by the liberal/progressive voices, the vast majority of whom seem more like a united front than an assembly-line product.

Sasha Sokolov said in A School for Fools: "All right, but how do you begin? What words do you use? It makes no difference, use the words..." We should put down our hesitation and start typing.

(I'll try a draft in a minute, then check back. Let me know if this is a silly idea.)