I have been getting quite a few bits of nice fan mail and feedback from readers of Secrets & Lies during the last few weeks. I do not need to have my ego stroked, but it is always good to know that your work is reaching an audience and connecting with them.
However, lest I begin to think Secrets & Lies is only read by people with positive things to say about it, I got a reassuringly abusive reader email today. It read:
'How does it feel to be an ignorant and ungrateful fool?
America is not aggressive. My country saved England from the Nazis and commies. Why don't you shove your pathetic anti-American horseshit up your screaming English faggot hole?
I hate your book and I hope you die.'
It was signed: 'A Defender of Liberty'.
To add to his non-aggressive 'hope you die', bravery and willingness to debate the accusation, Defender of Liberty had used a remailer to protect his anonymity. This is a shame as I would have liked to have asked him for a definition of what exactly makes my 'English faggot hole' so 'screaming'?
Later today I will post the entry that seemed to work Defender of Liberty into such froth and let people decide for themselves whether I write 'anti-American horseshit.'
Personally, I do not think I do.
With a modicum of intelligence, you can love America and its people with passion and hate the actions of its governments without any significant dissonance.
7 comments:
I love America with a passion and am quite disillusioned with the government. I feel it (primarily the Bush administration) has betrayed the trust of the people as a whole. However, the Bush administration didn't get to this place without the aid of every administration preceeding it -- each one "bending" more rules than the last until the United States has become a country I fear it's own forefathers would not recognize.
Loving someone or something does not mean condoning or ignoring unexceptable behavior. In fact, if you want to nuture and preserve what you love, correction is your responsibility, least what you love self-destructs.
Absolutely. I gave eight years to my country, I fly my American flag with honor, and if I had the ability to completely clean house from the President on down, I would. Our government is a mess. Reform is needed at every level and as the baby country in the worlds scheme, we should be looking to our elders for reform.
i liked America & England very much since i was a kid & one of my dreams was 2 immegrate 2 one of them someday ,but now i can't think of it any more not 2 b charged as a terrorist cuz my religion or mother country(i'm Egyption muslim & proud of it)
unfortunately Mr Bush & Mr Blair made it the most hated countries among the arabs & muslims
even those who used 2 defend them in the past cant do this now or they will b called as spies 2 the American Impire who is destroying our countries "islamic & arabic ones"
& helping the dectators regimes in the middle east is even make it worse 2 the hole west reputition
i really hope America come back 2 its old days as a liberty defender or it will b soon fall as many other impires did b4
at last 4 that Mr "'A Defender of Liberty'" i thank him 4 revealing 4 me that there is many other genious ppl in the world who support Mr Bush as if he is America - this is happening mostly in our countries when ppl refuse 2 talk about the dectator cuz the think HE IS THE COUNTRY.(( when Dr.Ayman Noor was in egyption presidency elections against the dectator Mubarak & i was helping Dr.Noor & many ppl were defending Mubarak cuz they think as Mr liberty defender that the president = the country EGYPT
God b with u Mr David 4 all that brilliant ppl u deal with
Just found your blog wee while ago.
Typical American that gives the rest of his/her countrymen a bad name. So they saved us from the Nazis and the Commies... yeah right!! That's all to big a subject to cover in a comment so I'll limit it to this.
If you base who saved us during the war and you go by the number of troop deaths I think he will find it was the Commies that had the highest level of dead out of all the Allies. So based on that it was the Commies that saved us and the USA from the Nazis.
So hay America it was Russia that saved us all woo hoo.
I do not know what it is but every blog that I find worth reading, randomly or otherwise Quilldancer is always there first they must know a good blog when they see it. They sure do get about.
David, I have read Secrets & Lies and as you know I am an American. No, I do not believe that you write anti-american horseshit. This book is an eye-opener and while my jaw dropped several times, I never found you to be confusing animosity towards the american government with animosity towards the american people. This guy just sounds like a coward and an idiot. XO
As an American, this fellow can shove his opinion right up his screaming patriotic asshole. What an ignorant creep.
I love my freedoms, of course, but I do not buy into the fact that we are given them by the grace of the government and these unjust wars. (is there such thing as a JUST war?) America is the new kid on the block...the one with the shiny white tennis shoes and the attitude big enough to sink the Titanic. The one who thinks he knows everything, and knows nothing. The one who is a bully, and threatened by any knew knowledge or by any opinions other than his own. The one who will do anything at all costs to defend his ignorant position. That's what America looks like.
I love so many people here, and so many things about my life...but I tell you, I dream of moving away to a place where my tax dollars actually do something for me and my kids...and away from such biggot assholes as Mr. Liberty who doesn't even have the balls to have a civilized discussion by providing a response address. Whew.
We are very used to these anonymous assholes in the U.S. of A. I call them out constantly to reveal themselves, but the internet has made cowardly attacks so easy as to be irresistible. Most people feel comfortable living blindly in their myths. Yes, America is the greatest and most free country in the world, if you ignore the fact that we rank 53rd in the world in freedom of the press and engage in illegal imprisonment and torture. Yes, Democrats tax and spend, whereas Republicans are fiscally responsible, until you see that we had a budget surplus under Democratic President Clinton and the biggest budget deficit in history under President Bush, who spends our money on a war he started and charges everyone but the rich a graft tax by redistributing wealth upwards through government contracts and subsidies.
What will it take to pull the scales from the eyes of these lotus eaters? we'll see...
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