An open letter to the idiot who thought it was ok to heckle me with fat jokes on my run yesterday,
Your comment was a clear indication of both your incredibly witty repartee and a feat of observational comedy. I am indeed a big girl, and I am indeed beautiful. Thanks for noticing. I’m not sure who you were telling I was fat, you clearly have eyes, and the only other people present were me and my boyfriend. I assure you that despite your concern I do own a mirror, and my boyfriend has seen my fat body as he too has eyes. Don’t tell anyone but I think he might even like it.
Normally I don’t get militant about these things, idiots are idiots. However, I can see why comments like these might put a person less confident than me off from running, and that is shameful. Everyone starts...
Lifestyle
Dear Grandpa,
I'm going to try to get these words out of my heart, but I can't guarantee I can finish this. Tears are hitting my fingers as I type.
I'm not even sure where to start. There's a lot that hasn't been said out loud, but it's not necessary because I know how you feel. More than anything, I want to say thank you and I love you.
You embraced my mother, a Kenyan, and accepted her relationship with your son in a time when interracial relationships were frowned upon. You were supportive of their relationship from beginning, and through the end.
It couldn't have been easy to watch your son and daughter-in-law go through a rough marriage, and then a devastating divorce. As a parent, you probably wanted to help, but when your children are adults, there's only so much you...
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Dear 5 Seconds of Summer,
I have nothing against you. I think your accents are pretty rad, your passion for music admirable and your creativity coveted. However, as a female teenage girl, I am deeply offended by your "Good Girls" music video.
I'm 17 years old, a senior from a nameless small town. Despite humble beginnings, a fire has been lighted in my heart that one day that I'd be able to rise above my circumstances and make a name for myself. I unashamedly work hard for my goals. I take five AP classes, have a 4.6 grade point average, hold six internships and received an 1800 on my SAT. To me, the dark circles under my eyes and my need for caffeine represents my chance at achieving success, following my dreams, and pursuing my purpose. As I struggle against the societal pressure...
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Dear Governor Perdue:
On your desk is a bill passed by the overwhelmingly Republican North Carolina legislature to ban local communities from building or supporting community broadband networks. (H.129). By midnight tonight, you must decide whether to veto that bill, and force the legislature to take a second look.
North Carolina is an overwhelmingly rural state. Relative to the communities it competes with around the globe, it has among the slowest and most expensive Internet service. No economy will thrive in the 21st century without fast, cheap broadband, linking citizens, and enabling businesses to compete. And thus many communities throughout your state have contracted with private businesses to build their own community broadband networks.
These networks have been...
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Dear Rev. Graham,
You don't know me, although we are in a similar line of work. You are the head of a significant worldwide ministry, and I am the senior rabbi of a synagogue on the East Coast. Based on some of your pronouncements, I am sure that there are matters on which we disagree, certainly gay rights and Islam. However, on many matters I feel we are in complete agreement, namely the importance of faith and the role that faith can play in motivating us to do good works.
I am writing to commend you for your remarkable organization, Samaritan's Purse, which provides medical care for poor and isolated communities. Samaritan's Purse is one of the organizations that is working in the Ebola hot zones of West Africa, successfully stemming the spread of this dreaded disease and saving...
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Dear Neighbors,
Hello! My name is Jonathan Kim and I have been living at the house on the corner of _____ and _____ since December 2011. I had previously lived in an apartment just two blocks from my current location, and I am very glad that I decided to stay in this terrific neighborhood.
Many of you may know my house, a handsome Steinkamp, by its front lawn, which I largely stopped watering and tending close to two years ago, first allowing the grass to grow long, then mowing it and allowing weeds to grow. On several occasions, some of you (sometimes repeatedly) have asked me in person or by anonymous letter about the state of my front yard, when I will develop it into something more attractive, and when those plans will be acted on. A few of your comments have been sympathetic,...
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Dear Baby Boomers,
Thank you.
No, really, I mean it. You guys catch a lot of flack from my generation, the "me, me, me, millennials," and not nearly enough gratitude. So I'm here to give you some props. You fought for civil rights. You dealt with a draft and a very unpopular foreign policy. You survived a nuclear arms race, political corruption, a depression in the 80s, crack, AIDS... and you raised a generation into adulthood who were born into a communication revolution that you created, but now can barely understand. But how could you? It was and still is an exponentially transforming digital landscape. In the last few decades we have seen obsolescence of goods and services that had been the bedrock of modernism, and media creations at every turn.
And now that we are grabbing...
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Dear Senator Clinton,
Having spent the better part of my youth defending your honor, as I take my first unstable steps into true, bonafide womanhood, I wanted to thank you.
As a young girl I wanted you to be President. I wanted you to be President before I knew what it would mean for you to be President. I hadn't even been in school long enough to realize that there hadn't been a girl president. I did not yet have the intellectual framework of "the glass ceiling" to understand the playground patriarchy, but I did know that my propensity to be "one of the boys" was beginning to define me as a leader. I looked for strong women to watch, to learn from.
Bill Clinton was elected president when I was two years old, so as I was growing up his was the only concept of presidency that I...
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Dear Grandma,
When I was little, you taught me to be "wise." To be fearless. To read the newspaper clippings on Eleanor Roosevelt, the biography of Lucretia Mott, and the pie recipes you sent my way. I opened those boxes of presents with joy, and they had their desired effect. I believe women and men are equally capable and deserve equal treatment. Incidentally, I make a darn good blueberry pie. I'm true blue in other ways as well; like you, a lifelong Democrat.
It seems I might have been the perfect Hillary Clinton voter. I was raised in Wellesley, MA (where Hillary went to college) and attend Yale (where she got her law degree). I met Senator Clinton a few years ago and found her to be extremely smart and much warmer than the media like to portray her. When I met Senator Obama at...
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Dear Mr. Waters:
Your recent statements about Israel and advocacy for BDS have garnered significant condemnation, with some going as far as to label you an anti-Semite. This is not the first time you have encountered such allegations.
Over the past few years, you have incorporated Jewish imagery into your concert performances, painting a Star of David on your famous floating pig alongside other symbols, including a dollar sign and the sickle and hammer. You repeatedly rejected accusations of a malicious subtext to the use of the Star of David, assuring fans that you were in no way equating Jews with money or communism. We took you at your word, and defended your actions as artistic expression void of anti-Semitic intent.
In recent months, however, your relentless attacks against...
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