No laughing matter
Busby is at it again, using Occupy Wall Street to further his writing career [“Occupy Portland Tours,” August 2012]. This piece does a great job of diminishing the disparity of wealth that has occurred in the past two decades, by distortion. His use of historical context to create blather for his “tour” guide avoids the truth about what makes up GDP in 2012, what Glass-Steagall is and was, how much money there is in politics, or how to start cooperatives to renew local economic structures, and what rights people have to assemble for free speech.
This dude obviously does not get it, that rolling your own or not, these conversations going on everywhere in the commons are unprecedented raw democracy. His spoof is a contemptuous whine-fest in its own right. Attempting to frame OWS folks as whiners, he reveals his own inner demons — creative angst?
— Rachel Lyn Rumson, New Gloucester
Memories of a dump
It has always been a sad sight to view 9 and 11 St. Lawrence St. for my family [That’s My Dump!, August 2012]. Patrick and Catherine Malia married in 1888 and moved to 11 St. Lawrence St. in 1900. Patrick died in a boating accident off Long Island Sound in 1912 and Catherine died in 1936.
We have a fun story about the old house and Spring Point Light. As soon as Patrick entered the house after a day of fishing — no matter what time he arrived — Catherine would call out, “Supper will be ready in about 15 minutes!”
How did she time his arrival? From the kitchen window she would see his boat around Spring Point Light and that would tell her to put the potatoes on. Pat’s boat was docked at the foot of St. Lawrence Street — a quick walk up the hill and he was home. When the new condos are built they could have the same family-famous view of the Light.
— Carol Malia, Portland
Vomiting in Public?
As I read Billy Kelley’s Fishing in Public [“The macks are back,” July 2012], I had to ask myself a number of questions, like:
1. Why would The Bollard, which prints many interesting and informative articles, want to offend a whole segment of its readers by using words like “goddamned” this and that, using The Holy Name of Jesus as an exclamation, “damn” and “fucking” this and that.
2. Is this the way we want our kids talking? And when they talk using that language, they can justify it by saying, “It’s in The Bollard.”
3. For Billy Kelley, is that how a man speaks? Or maybe he should rename his article Vomiting in Public. That’s how you talk when you’re frustrated and can’t hook a fish or you don’t have the language skills to write a decent article.
I’m all for free speech, but we need to be held accountable for the effects of what we say. Just like you can cry “Fire!” in a theater, but you will be held accountable for what happens.
Jesus is a sacred name used by many in times of sickness, death and tragedy. We need not stifle free speech but simply respect the sacred values of others, like the name of Allah or Jehovah.
There are many god articles on fishing where the authors don’t go out of their way to point out their deficiencies as writers.
Thank you for an otherwise interesting and informative publication.
— Robert J. McManus, Scarborough
