Dear 2015,
Welcome. We've been anxiously awaiting your arrival. We know you have some exciting projects and programs for the New Year. But before we talk about that, let's review your predecessor, 2014.
For AJA, 2014 was a year filled with activity. Our Annual Conference...
Lifestyle
Dear Dr. Little:
On behalf of United Poultry Concerns I write to express my keen disappointment in the AVMA's recent resolution to continue endorsing the starvation of hens to protect the poultry and egg industry at the expense of avian welfare. Based on the AVMA's continuing acceptance of depriving hens of food and the AMVA Positions on Animal Welfare in the 2002 AVMA Directory, it is clear that your association does not uphold its oath "to use my scientific knowledge and skills for the benefit of society through promotion of public health, protection of animal health, and the relief of animal suffering."
The AVMA knows perfectly well that the practice of withholding food from a bird for days and weeks is not comparable to the natural seasonal cycles in which hens replace their...
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Dear Congressmen, Justices, and Presidents,
You have betrayed your oath of office to uphold our great Constitution. You have done this in a number of ways. First, you have perpetrated two unjust and unconstitutional wars without any declaration of war. You have allowed a Federal Reserve to control the money supply of America, with no superseding authority. You have destroyed the 10th amendment by usurping states rights. You have taken the American taxpayers money and given it to the bankers responsible for the very economic crisis you were trying to prevent. You have enacted the Patriot Act, Military Commissions Act, and made several rulings, which have eviscerated the 4th amendment. In fact, your negligence was so great that you didn’t even read the Patriot Act before voting for it....
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To the Poetry Foundation:
This is an open letter asking the Poetry Foundation to make a strong financial commitment to aid poets in our communities facing financial crises and a lack of adequate healthcare.
Many poets and I are concerned about the welfare of the many poets facing unprecedented economic challenges in this unstable economy. In the last year or two, a number of poets, old and young, established and emerging, have asked for financial assistance on social media and through email for healthcare costs, rent, and even utilities. It is heartbreaking when poets you have admired for years are forced to ask for help with basic necessities. The poetry community is strong. We help each other when our members are in need, and many poets have answered those calls for assistance. We...
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Dear Mr. Priebus,
Congratulations.
You must be awfully proud of your team at the RNC. Your new ad, featuring Solicitor General Donald Verrilli is, as your spokesman described it, “novel” and “ahead of the curve.” Though we’re not sure if he meant the use of Supreme Court audio recordings, or the blatant manipulation of the audio.
Foolishly, we here at American Bridge 21st Century have been relying on the actual video and audio of your candidates, in full and in context.
Like when Jon Bruning (R-NE) compared welfare recipients to raccoons..
Or when Mitt Romney told the Iowa State Fair “corporations are people, my friend.”
But by manipulating the audio like you guys did of the Solicitor General, you can make it sound like someone said something in a way that they didn’t...
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Dear Superintendent Jose Banda, July 1st, 2012
The purpose of this correspondence is to state our collective position in direct response to the abrupt eviction of our American Indian Heritage Middle College program. We are categorically opposed to the dispossession of our Native program from the Indian Heritage school site (Wilson Pacific Building). We want our program immediately returned back to Indian Heritage (Wilson Pacific).
We view relocation of the program to Northgate Mall as a defining step to eliminate the historically successful Native focused student centered alternative program. Dispossessing our program removes AIHMC students and staff from the embedded benefits of...
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Dear Mike,
I am writing about your letter of September 15, 2010, urging the Senate to enact legislation that would prevent EPA from issuing rules under the Clean Air Act to limit greenhouse gases for at least two years. While you sent this letter in your role as Chair of a Business Roundtable task force, I know you well enough to believe that you personally agree with the statements in the letter. With that in mind I want to provide you with my reasons for strongly disagreeing with those claims.
You start by arguing that the Clean Air Act is not well-designed to regulate “ubiquitous pollutants like carbon dioxide emissions, whose impact is global, not local or regional.” That argument might apply to the Act’s ambient standards programs but EPA has made it clear that it has no...
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Dear American Heritage Dictionary, 4th edition (2009):
Hello! How are you? Ahem. It has recently come to my attention that your definition of Founding Father (capitalized) reads thusly: "A member of the convention that drafted the U.S. Constitution in 1787." Now, as you may know, Thomas Jefferson did not attend the Constitutional Convention, occupied as he was in France, furthering the new nation's interests and buying many many nice things. Therefore, according to your definition, Thomas Jefferson is not a Founding Father. I would urge you to say that aloud to yourself a few times. Doesn't it sound silly? Yes it does.
My point there, of course, is that it was not necessary to be physically present at the Constitutional Convention to have had a profound role in the formation...
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Dear American Parent,
I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart. Because of your awful parenting, average men just like myself are racking up notch counts that even Casanova himself would be jealous of, all from learning a handful of game tricks.
I have performed the job that you have not. When my sister was about 16, I sat her down for “the talk.” I went over human sexual anatomy and contraception, but most importantly I talked about the meaning of sex. Here’s what I told her:
All men are pigs. Yes, even I am a pig. All we want is to have sex with the least amount of effort. We will say anything you want to hear in order to get it. Understand that before sex, you have all the power, but afterwards you have very little. A guy who was jumping over himself to hang out with...
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Dear New TFA Recruits,
It is summertime, which for those of you newly accepted into Teach for America, means you are enduring the long hard days of Institute. I congratulate you on being accepted into this prestigious program. You clearly have demonstrated intelligence, passion, and leadership in order to make it this far.
And now I am asking you to quit.
Exacerbating Inequalities
Teach for America likely enticed you into the program with the call for ending education inequality. That is a beautiful and noble mission. I applaud you on being moved by the chance to help children, of being a part of creating equality in our schools, of ending poverty once and for all.
However, the actual practice of Teach for America does the exact opposite of its noble mission. TFA...
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