THE POWER OF FREE SPEECH

On Sunday, a letter I had written to the editor of our local (read that ‘small’) newspaper was published. The majority of human beings, I believe, simply read such articles, bellow their approval or disapproval to the spouse in the other room (the one who does the cooking, cleaning and laundry - and it ain’t always the woman, I know), and then the air is cleaned, at least in their mind.

For me, however, any bellowing on my part only starts the dogs yipping and my spouse becoming extremely agitated because I am agitated and begins planning bombing whatever-central-government-installation-or-business that has sparked off his wife.

Taking my pen in hand is not a option when you have arthritis and the temperature keeps hovering below freezing (but yes, it’s a DRY cold), but my nifty keyboard is always available for me to pound out my persuasion into Word Perfect. And if that action is not enough to vent my frustration/anger/irritation/astonishment/adoration, then I send it off into cyberspace to my blog or (in this particular instance) to the local newspaper.

Although my husband has been working security matters our entire marriage (except for a early and (mercifully) brief association with processing chickens (going from very alive to very dead and delivered to stores) - after that, almost anything would be an improvement), I often fail to consider possible consequences of my allowing my extremely unique name (both first and last) to be published (which is a requirement for letters to the editor). So far phone calls have been positive and supportive, but I didn’t even consider that I am the one and only **** ******** in the phone book for our entire county (which is right in between Delaware and Rhode Island for square miles - ain’t the Internet wonderful for trivia such as that being right at your fingertips?).

Therefore, next time I am not satisfied with simply noting down my displeasure with a certain news story or editorial opinion, I am going to pick an extremely controversial and volatile subject (let’s say a gay, black Mormon running for President; wouldn’t that make Romney proud?) (or, especially down here, the civil rights of people who are illegally entering our country) (or, even BETTER, the radical group of lisping chipmunks protesting the desugarization of Frosted Mini Wheats to improve cockroaches' dental hygiene), come out on whatever side is the most liberal (this is the state that produced Barry Goldwater, and has not moved much into the future as the years have passed), and simply wait for the fire-bombings to begin.