Letter to Wall Street Journal by Alisa Wilson

[shagsak]

Below is an email I received from my right leaning grandparents. I added my usual responses in red and sent it back. I am posting this to see what you think. How do you feel when you get emails like this from family? How do you respond? Am I doing all I can do? My responses are addressed to the writer...


This is letter was sent to the Wall Street Journal on August 8, 2008 by Alisa Wilson, Ph.D. of Beverly Hills, California in response to the Wall Street Journal article titled "Where's The Outrage?" that appeared July 31, 2008

Before we begin, there is no proof this is an actual letter that was sent. It was never published and it never reached an audience via a journalism news source. It did reach its audience via chain mail, political websites etc. That alone does not necessarily discredit the letter, but it does put it on the “shady” side. According to Snopes, its origin is still being investigated.

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I can tell you where the outrage is. The outrage is here, in this middle-aged, well-educated, upper-middle class woman. The outrage is here, but I have no representation, no voice. The outrage is here, but no one is listening for who am I! Your representation (Republican Ideals) was beaten in the last election by the majority of Americans (Democrats).

I am not a billionaire like George Soros that can fund an entire political movement. I am not a celebrity like Barbra Streisand that can garner the attention of the press to promote political candidates. I am not a film maker like Michael Moore or Al Gore that can deliver misleading movies to the public. You are the everyday average upper class American - the top % of earners. I assume you do not live in a tent nor do you have to beg for money to feed your children, and you probably have not lost your job as have millions of other Americans. Why are you outraged?

The outrage is here, but unlike those with money or power, I don't know how to reach those who feel similarly in order to effect change. – Upper middle class with no money? Why am I outraged? I am outraged that my country, the United States of America , is in a state of moral and ethical decline. The decline began with the Bush Administration. The people of America have woken up and elected change. There is no right or wrong anymore, just what's fair. Opinion.

Is it fair that millions of Americans who overreached and borrowed more than they could afford are now being bailed out by the government and lending institutions to stave off foreclosure? Why shouldn't these people be made to pay the consequences for their poor judgment? They do, they live in tents after being removed from their homes after losing their jobs. Is that fair enough? They didn’t over reach, that is a regurgitated myth. They were lied to and taken advantage of. That is documented.

When my husband and I purchased our home, we were careful to purchase only what we could afford. Believe me, there are much larger, much nicer homes that I would have loved to have purchased. But, taking responsibility for my behavior and my life, I went with the house that we could afford, not the house that we could not afford. The notion of personal responsibility has all but died in our country. Many mortgage lenders LIED TO/TOOK ADVANTAGE OF first time buyers. http://money.cnn.tv/video/fortune/2008/03/27/willis.ameriquest.busted.fortune/ No oversight tends to make lying/cheating/stealing easier – however it wasn’t their fault, they were just trying to make money in a capitalist society. The credit / lending system is designed around the upper middle to upper class. Everyone else suffers.

I am outraged, that the country that welcomed my mother as an immigrant from Hitler's Nazi Germany and required that she and her family learn English now allows itself to be overrun with illegal immigrants and worse, caters to those illegal immigrants. They work for next to nothing, doing the jobs you refuse to. They are the backbone of our nation.

I am outraged that my hard-earned taxes help support those here illegally. That the Los Angeles Public School District is in such disarray that I felt it incumbent to send my child to private school, that every time I go to the ATM, I see "do you want to continue in English or Spanish?", that every time I call the bank, the phone company , or similar business, I hear "press 1 for English or press 2 for Spanish". WHY? This is America , our common language is English and attempts to promote a bi- or multi-lingual society are sure to fail and to marginalize those who cannot communicate in English. You choose to send your child to a private school BECAUSE of illegal immigrants? Are you sure it isn't because you can AFFORD to?

I am outraged at our country's weakness in the face of new threats on American traditions from Muslims. – This is blatant anger against a religious sect – similar to Nazi Germany where the Jews were persecuted for being Jewish. How is allowing a religious group to have religious freedom a threat? How is allowing others to worship how they like a weakness? I could have sworn freedom of religion was in the constitution. Furthermore, it seems hypocritical to have a mom from Hitler’s Nazi Germany, and not understand being persecuted for religious beliefs – I smell a fish. Just this week, Tyson's Food negotiated with its union to permit Muslims to have Eid-al-Fitr as a holiday instead of Labor Day. What am I missing? Yes, there is a large Somali Muslim population working at the Tyson's plant in Tennessee . Tennessee , last I checked, is still part of the United States. If Muslims want to live and work here they should be required to live and work by our American Laws and not impose their will on our long history. Labor Unions are independent from corporations and exist so that workers are treated fairly, and as such are allowed to negotiate on behalf of the workers they represent. If the majority of workers represented happen to be Christian, they would probably want Christmas Day off if they didn’t have it off already wouldn’t they? As a Christian, if you could trade Labor Day for Christmas Day off would you do it? If they want to trade one day for the other, what is the problem? Why not allow it? How is this not Democratic?

In the same week, Random House announced that they had indefinitely delayed the publication of The Jewel of Medina, by Sherry Jones, a book about the life of Mohammed's wife, Aisha due to fear of retribution and violence by Muslims. When did we become a nation ruled by fear of what other immigrant groups want? It makes me so sad to see large corporations cave rather than stand proudly on the principles that built this country. This is a fictional novel depicting Mohammad as a pedophile, however it was presented as fact. Regardless, Random House was criticized by other publishers for not publishing the book. Fear is powerful, just look at Swine Flu. ]

I am outraged because appeasement has never worked as a political policy, yet appeasing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is exactly what we are trying to do. Similar to when Reagan “appeased” Gorbachev during the cold war… or was that diplomacy since he was a republican… An excellent article, also published recently in the Wall Street Journal, went through over 20 years of history and why talking with Iran has been and will continue to be ineffective. – I would not use a journalists viewpoints to define diplomatic policy, similarly, I wouldn’t go to a pet store to have my brakes checked. That is what I think is wrong with this country. A journalists job used to be to state the facts, to inform the public of what is going on – to keep us informed. Lately, journalists have taken it a step further and are stating more and more opinion. That is not their job IMO. Yet talk, with a madman no less, we continue to do. Have we so lost our moral compass and its ability to detect evil that we will not go in and destroy Iran 's nuclear program? We are not the global police, nor do we have global support for such a move. Would we rather wait for another Holocaust for the Jews -- one which they would be unlikely to survive? When does it end? Interestingly, earlier it was discussed that we tend to be controlled by fear. What I am reading from you is we should go to war with all of our enemies and overtake their countries, similar to what was done by the bush admin to Iraq. We can always manufacture evidence to justify such a thing. But do we have enough military might to simultaneously take on North Korea, Iran and Venezuela? What about the many Americans that are suffering right now in our own country? Shouldn’t we help them first?

As if the battle for good and evil isn't enough, now come the Environmentalists who are so afraid of global warming that they want to put a Bag tax on grocery bags in California; to eliminate Mylar balloons; to establish something as insidious as the recycle police in San Francisco. I do my share for the environment: I recycle, I use water wisely, I installed an energy efficient air conditioning unit. But when and where does the lunacy stop? Ahmadinejad wants to wipe Israel off the map, the California economy is being overrun by illegal immigrants, and the United States of America no longer knows right from wrong, good from evil... So what does California do? Tax grocery bags. Unfortunately, we are a society of convenience and disposability. Landfills are overflowing and not enough is being recycled. Pollutants are being pumped into the atmosphere at an alarming rate and the earth’s climate is changing. It is documented. The scientific facts are clear to the majority of the scientific community. We are destroying our planet and have been for a century. Doing the right thing by our children appears to be to protect our home (Earth). It seems so simple yet corporate America will stop at nothing to attempt to discredit the work of so many of our nation’s finest thinkers/scientists. Ignoring the problem is obviously the most profitable.

So, America , although I can tell you where the outrage is, this one middle-aged, well-educated, upper middle class woman is powerless to do anything about it. I don't even feel like my vote counts because I am so outnumbered by those who disagree with me. If you are outnumbered by those that disagree with you, maybe you should try listening to their viewpoints and understand where they are coming from – you know, be diplomatic. Maybe buy them a bagel since they probably haven’t eaten.

~ Alisa Wilson, Ph.D., Beverly Hills , California – If that is your real name.
*There are a lot more of us out there who think just like Alisa Wilson, the only difference, she put her thoughts in an email that will reach thousands; keep this going and see how big it gets.* - Don’t worry, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and a cast of others put these same thoughts on repeat every day and deliver them loud and clear on radio and Television. The message is out there. If you can’t understand why others don’t see it the way you do, maybe you need to re evaluate why you stand where you do.

[gratuitous]

1. Wow, Alisa Wilson is a woman of many talents!

She was outraged in August 2008, months before President Bush blackmailed Congress with the first bailout threat. She was outraged months before the full scope of the mortgage bubble became known, and burst our economy. That's the problem with the system: Set up to keep the good people of Beverly Hills down. Can't an upper middle class woman catch a break?