Dear Senator Coburn,
As a veteran I find it is highly disingenuous of you to block the Clay Hunt Act because it doesn't have offset costs. As a veteran who lives in eastern Oklahoma and is a proud Oklahoman I find it despicable, dishonorable, and thoroughly against the values of everyday Oklahomans. You, sir, will be known for this for years to come. Your legacy will be one of empty values. You have misplaced the value of human life.
Throughout the years I've come to know many veterans in Eastern Oklahoma as I have spoken to them throughout the state working with the Veteran's Committee (OKDPVC) being the 2nd District's Officer on the Committee, and with the people I worked with in the Air Force. Veterans have a set of troubles the regular population does not have and because of...
Lifestyle
Dear HuffPost Gay Voices,
I can't sit on the sidelines anymore.
After I saw you post a parody video (later retracted) in which a trans woman is murdered as a consequence for voicing her objections to offensive language used on RuPaul's Drag Race, I can no longer publish my writing on your page. This letter is my last blog post on Gay Voices.
I know, I know: I could have simply stopped hitting the "Submit" button. But I need you to understand where my absence will come from. Seeking viewership through violence directed at trans women -- veiled in "humor" as it may be -- means that your page does not get to benefit, among other things, from the labor or passion of my writing. And while the loss of one blogger may be a drop in the bucket, it's something I know I have to do; I took a...
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Dear LGBTQ friends and allies around the globe,
Greetings from the Rainbow Action and sit-in protesters at the Seoul City Hall. We hope this letter finds you in good spirits—wherever you are, whatever you are doing to make the world a better place to live in together.
Today, Tuesday, Dec 9, 2014, we, the protesters, continue our fourth day of sit-in protest at Seoul City Hall. We decided to occupy the City Hall out of our rage at the fact that the Mayor of the Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG), Park Won Soon, has refused to acknowledge the duly passed Seoul Charter of Human Rights. The passed draft includes provisions that specify citizens’ right not to be discriminated against based on their sexual orientation and gender identity, which the mayor believes to be divisive, causing...
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Dear Public School Teachers,
We are sorry. On behalf of graduates of public schools, parents of children in public schools, those who value public education and teachers unions, we apologize. Your profession has been vilified, scapegoated, mined for profit, and deprofessionalized.
Earlier this year, a kindergarten teacher named Suzi Sluyter resigned after more than 25 years as an educator. She wrote: "I have watched as my job requirements swung away from a focus on the children, their individual learning styles, emotional needs, and their individual families, interests and strengths to a focus on testing, assessing, and scoring young children, thereby ramping up the academic demands and pressures on them... I did not feel I was leaving my job. I felt then and feel now that my job...
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Dear Marissa,
Whoa, girl! You really know how to drop a bomb. Everyone is still talking about that HR memo. I'm sure you're like, "Hey can we move on and start making some money now, people?!"
I'm totally with you, Ms. Mayer. Totally! I mean, we really need to tighten things up around here, get those lazy butts in seats. I'm a little bummed that my view of the parking lot will now be blocked by the guy across the hall -- the one with the sweet window office -- who hasn't been in for the last six months. But if innovation comes without access to direct sunlight, then I won't complain. I am ALL in!
Let me also just say that I think those who've dubbed you "the Stalin of Silicon Valley" are completely out of line. I mean, that's an insult to Stalin. He was way, way worse than you...
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Dear Editors:
I am rather stunned that the BMJ published a journalist's commentary about the work of the 2015 United States Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee as if it were an authoritative rebuttal. It's as if someone selling horse paperweights is invited to critique the Olympic equestrian team. It is, in a word, absurd- and testimony to the breakdown in integrity where science and media come together.
With all due respect to Ms. Teicholz, she is not a nutrition expert, and not a scientist. She is a journalist herself, and one with a book to sell. She refers to bias, but fails to highlight her own. If the DGAC report is valid, it calls into question her own conclusions- as well it should. She may therefore have suspect motives in seeking discredit this work.
The same author...
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Dear Mr. Jeffries,
Since you are a seasoned business executive, please define the “cool kids” market segment that is the “bread and butter” (inappropriate metaphor for your body image conscious stakeholders, but I really couldn’t help it) for your business.
I received my masters’ degree in integrated marketing communications (IMC) from Northwestern University one month before you explained your niche marketing strategy to Salon. Back then, I wondered, “How does this corporate leader define and size the ‘cool kids’ market segment.”
I think you defined your “cool kids” market segment based on what YOU, not objective research or analysis, felt was antithetical to YOUR definition of cool. As a Medill IMC alum, let me help you define the “cool kids” market.
A “cool kid” creates...
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Dear "Joe",
You recently published an open letter to the families of the Isla Vista shootings, stating that their murdered children didn't trump your constitutional right to bare arms.
Does your constitutional right trump someone else's right to simply go about their business and live? Because that's what these victims were doing. They weren't provoking anyone; they weren't threatening anyone, they weren't carrying out any criminal acts that would put lives at risk.
They were shopping at a deli and going into a sorority house. This was not an act of self-defense or protection of property. This was cold-blooded murder, and three of those murders were carried out with your constitutional bullshit.
You want to shoot at deer and empty beer cans go right ahead; no one is trying to...
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Dear Honorable Nancy Pelosi:
One day soon, perhaps in 2016, the Democrats will retake control of the House as the nation rejects Tea Party nativism. At that time, please do not award any committee chairs to Democrats who rejected the President's diplomatic initiative with Iran, for these are the Democrats we can expect to join Republicans in their frenzied mouth-watering rush to another war in the Middle East. To entrust lawmakers such as Los Angeles Congress Members Ted Lieu, Brad Sherman, and Tony Cardenas - among other naysayers in the House - with increased power and prestige would be to set the nation on the wrong self-destructive and militarist course that sent our boys home from Iraq in body bags.
While it is disturbing that my West Los Angeles Congress Member Ted Lieu sided...
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Dear Mr. President,
As you know, on April 24th Armenians and their friends all over the world will be commemorating the hundredth anniversary of the Armenian Genocide organized and executed by Ottoman Turkey.
About twenty countries acknowledge this tragic chapter in history, yet the majority of countries turn a blind eye on facts and tiptoe around the topic of the genocide of Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks in order to not irritate the Turkish government. What is particularly disappointing to me is that Israel (because of its history) and my two adopted home countries - the United States and Germany - are among those countries that choose perceived political convenience over standing for the truth and for justice.
Mr. President, as you know, about a week before Nazi Germany...
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