Thursday, May 31, 2007
I called Jerry Falwell an idiot, not a fool
Last week I read a letter submitted to Hagerstown’s premier newspaper of record, The Herald-Mail. The letter’s author was pointing out what a great man the late Jerry Falwell was and he stated that the reason some people didn’t like Falwell was because he was conservative.
Something like that.
I didn’t like Falwell. It wasn’t because he was conservative. It was because he was a dick. I think he was a bully who picked on gay people.
I decided to write my own letter pointing out why some people (like me) didn’t like Falwell.
Today my letter was published. In the letter, I wrote that Falwell was a “bigoted idiot”. They changed it to read “bigoted fool”. This bugs me because I don’t use words like “fool”. It reminds me of Mr. T’s famous catch phrase “I pity the fool“.
This isn’t the first time The Herald-Mail has altered my words. It will though be the last. Every time they publish one of my letters, they change words. A word here, a word there. It’s annoying.
No more. I have a blog. Why do I need to write letters to the newspaper? If I want to call Falwell an idiot, I can. I can call him much worse.
The Rev. Falwell’s ‘flaw’ wasn’t his Christianity
To the editor:
I wanted to respond to John Miller’s recent letter proclaiming the many supposed virtues of the now-deceased Rev. Jerry Falwell.
People are speaking ill of him not because of his conservative views. They are speaking ill of him because he was a bigoted fool idiot.
He said that God had created AIDS to punish gay people and the societies that tolerate gay people. He said that if you were not a born-again Christian, you were a failure as a human being.
He also blamed the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on pagans, abortionists, feminists, gay people and members of the ACLU. He also said that gay people were satanic beasts and that when they are finally all annihilated that there will be a celebration in heaven.
Who in their right mind not only believes these things, but actually says them aloud for others to hear? The fact is that Falwell gave Christianity a bad name.
He made Christians look bad. Who knows how many people Falwell kept away from Christianity with his intolerant and narrow-minded views?
Real Christians, the people who actually follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, don’t go around blaming pagans or the ACLU when things go wrong. Real Christians don’t talk about celebrating if a whole group of people were to be exterminated.
Rick Rottman
Hagerstown
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I’ll drink to that. Huzzah for your Falwell comments, and fuck the clueless and useless Herald-Mail for tinkering with your letter. What’s the thought process behind that, I wonder. “Gee, referring to the man who looked forward to a celebration in Heaven after homosexuality was obliterated as an ‘idiot’ is a little harsh, isn’t it?”
The hell with that rag.
I’m done. They have done this before. It’s not like they are correcting my grammar or spelling. They are literarily putting words in my mouth that I do not use. I don’t use the word “fool”.
You know what the Herald-Mail does best? Publishing photos of the 14 year old mother holding her new baby standing next to the baby’s 32 year old grandmother who is standing next to the baby’s 47 year old great-great grandmother. Not one single wedding ring in the bunch. My favorites are the ones where all the mothers have tattoos on their forearms.
And hey, isn’t it a conflict of interest to publish the photos of the 14-year-old tattooed mother when you’re giving so much advertising and press to every single church in the area at the same time? Not a day goes by there isn’t a lengthy article about how wonderful some pastor is, or how last Sunday’s pancake dinner was a great success, praise God.
Teen mothers and crazy Christians, and apparently nobody else. That’s my hometown, according to the Herald-Mail.