I’ll take a moment on this excellent and fair day to catch up on some reader mail. (As I publish pseudonymously, I’ll not publish the names of any readers, either.) Here are the paraphrases of questions or comments that I’ve been asked, and my replies.
Comment: …finally some one who tells it like it is!!!!!
Reply: Well, that’s it’s really not hard at all, but merely a recitation of what some some of the police, and others, have themselves said and written. It may sting the ears of some, but only because they’re so vain and imperious that that they feel themselves above ordinary public criticism and discourse. Having spent years heaping false praise on themselves, it seems almost unimaginable to them that someone would question their conduct in any regard. They lack even the smallest measure of humility or even, apparently, self-reflection. These are very ordinary people, who wish to be regarded as extraordinary, and will browbeat anyone who’ll listen into distorted versions of events.
Comment, from a member of the Common Council, whose name I will not disclose: I have recently had the chance to read over your website. Although I do not agree with a lot of what you have written, I think that you bring up some good, well-written points.
Reply: Thanks.
Comment, continued, from the same member of the Common Council: That Marilyn Kienbaum was not president of the Common Council at the time of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article from which I quoted.
Reply: Yes, I know, as I have met her countless times over the years. I don’t think any readers would be confused by my reference to her as Council President, as my readers likely know of her, too, and know that she became president after she gave the interview.
Comment, continued, from the same member of the Common Council: it is easy to make these outrageous claims when you choose to remain anonymous.
Reply: They’re not outrageous; they’re ordinary comments in cities across America, about public officials, the community, etc. They’re points that are no less true for being anonymous, and no more true for being easily attributed. If my comments are truly outrageous, they’ll not resonate with others, and will be quickly forgotten.
Why have I not identified you as a Council member? Because many of the people that you and I see each day would be shocked that you’d write to me at all, so thin-skinned are they, and so weak that they shy away from mere words.
They live in a world where simple criticism is beyond the pale, a shocking breach of their own exaggerated –but strongly felt — sense of entitlement. That’s no way to live, but it’s how they live — and how they expect others to live, too.
Comment: Keep of the good work.
Reply: Thanks very much, I will.