Salon | Letters to the editor

_______________MAIL ROOM DISPATCH ...

Last week's debate over the relevance of Linda Tripp's physical features -- first raised in an article by Salon's Gary Kamiya -- continued this week with a letter from Larry Victor, who sided with Kamiya, writing: "There are times when a person's face reveals everything. Could anyone look upon Joseph McCarthy and not sense the evil inherent in his nature?"
We expected to receive a flood of letters in response to Joan Walsh's report on the Wall Street Journal's decision to publish Juanita Broaddrick's story that claimed President Clinton had raped her. And we were right. However, the nature of the letters took us by surprise. Instead of the anticipated "We believe you, Juanita"/"We don't believe you" reactions, most writers were more concerned with how Salon approached the controversial subject.
To fluoridate, or not to fluoridate? That was the question put forth by investigative reporters Mark Hertsgaard and Philip Frazer in their article exploring claims that the much-praised toothpaste supplement is actually harmful. Survey says? Judging from the mail, opinion is split down the middle.
Finally, Lori Gottlieb's essay on the suicide of a college classmate created quite a ruckus among readers who wrote in to scold Gottlieb for perceived class-based bias. (Some of their responses are published below.)

_______________GHOSTS ON CAMPUS BY LORI GOTTLIEB (02/22/99)

Now I know what the gorillas that Dian Fossey lived with felt. Without actually communicating with them, Lori Gottlieb has spoken for the most misunderstood of the various campus oddities: the brooding, shuffling, silent weirdo. They're all suicidal, according to Gottlieb. All prone to creepy classroom outbursts. How in God's name would she know how they feel, while guffawing with her classmates and planning what she'll wear to spring sorority formals? As a former member of this silent but screaming on the inside minority, I managed to look up from the ground long enough to hear the taunts and giggles, particularly from Greeks and jocks. So I'm well aware of the pain they experience.
I think the real reason that a lot of these kids end up on college campuses is that they feel the academics there will finally "understand" them. At least in theory, college is supposed to be the place where people can find themselves, free from the constricting conformity of high school. The loosened mores and cultural expectations of college might allow that choking fear and self-loathing to be channeled into a computer, a play or a debate -- or at least a friendly relationship with a former campus weirdo turned professor. In reality, college is a slightly more complex place, but it has this potential.
When I arrived on campus, I hardly knew the buildings had roofs and recognized most people by their shoes. I was that scrawny guy eating alone. But encouraged by a few offbeat teachers to write, and find something that inspired me (in my case political science), I managed to raise my head a little. By the time I was a senior, I had a column in the campus newspaper, where I railed against the Greeks who controlled our campus with their inane pageantry. The freak had struck back. But I spent more time on the side of the invisible than the visible, realizing that people spoke freely when they hardly noticed you. So that ghostlike quality certainly had its merits.
We don't really need a condescending pat on the shoulder from the likes of Lori Gottlieb. There are a lot of weirdos sitting alone on the quadrangle. Some will end up as your next political science professor and some will wind up dead. But I suspect a few jocks and sorority princesses will pull the trigger too. Look at it this way: When you're a success in the safe haven of a college campus, the punch in the face from the corporate world will be a lot tougher if you've had your ass kissed for four years. We weirdos, in the meantime, have developed the ability to cope with life's shitiness already, so in a way we are more prepared for life's uncertainties.
-- Tim Fogle
Louisville, Ky.
Yes, the ghosts are everywhere. I used to be one. It comes from feeling alone. The way I moved from being a ghost to a person of substance was a deliberate choice on my part combined with a fresh entry to college. This gave me a place where I could start from scratch to discover my social identity. I've been conscious of the hidden folk ever since.
With the huge size of cities, the confusion over religion, the fallout of community dances and the plain "public houses" evolving into meat market pubs and bars, there simply aren't many places for fellowship or community. Nobody gathers around the piano anymore. When was the last time you went to a party, met some new folks and played a nice little parlor game?
How can we learn how much we have in common when we never get together anymore?
-- Erskin L. Cherry
Although I appreciate the sentiments expressed in Lori Gottlieb's article, which exhorts us to be nicer to each other, it ultimately left a pretty nasty taste in my mouth. Although I am sure Gottlieb has nothing but the best of motives, she displays an astounding ignorance of class issues and reveals herself to be an untutored child of privilege. I am referring, of course, to the absurd way in which troubled teens and the working class are presented as in need of "saving."
Yes, we should pay attention to the lonely waifs on the edges of the social scene at our schools; and yes, we should be nice to those who perform menial tasks, like the janitor who empties our trash or that absurdly grateful crossing guard. However, although I cannot speak for the depressed and lonely, I can speak for those of us who serve others to make a living. And you know what, Ms. Gottlieb? I realize that it may be unusual among your cohorts to treat us like human beings, but we in the working class do not need you "visible people" to save us by exhibiting basic politeness, because we are already saved.
-- Marya Janoff
Why does Lori Gottlieb think that the people she and her friends don't know are invisible? Invisible to her, perhaps, but it isn't difficult to imagine that these people have fully developed lives entirely apart from self-absorbed college students. For example, the janitor who empties the trash, who is supposedly part of the same invisible crowd as the scrawny boy and his pathetic sandwich, in all likelihood has a family and friends and doesn't depend on the condescending nods of 18-year-olds for his self-esteem.
Gottlieb in fact seems to be describing two separate phenomena: the invisibility of the working class -- janitors, crossing guards and so on -- to some privileged people, and the invisibility to some other students of students who are outside the mainstream. And even members of the latter group might not be devastated at solitude. I, for example, have been known to eat lunch alone and even -- gasp -- attend the movies by myself, but I don't plan to commit suicide any time soon -- and if I were, I doubt Gottlieb's deigning to notice me would change my mind.
-- Sarah Lawsky
N E X T+P A G E+| Tell your media critic to shut his trap!

_______________MAIL ROOM DISPATCH ...
	Last week's debate over the relevance of Linda Tripp's physical features -- first raised in an article by Salon's Gary Kamiya -- continued this week with a letter from Larry Victor, who sided with Kamiya, writing: "There are times when a person's face reveals everything. Could anyone look upon Joseph McCarthy and not sense the evil inherent in his nature?" We expected to receive a flood of letters in response to Joan Walsh's report on the Wall Street Journal's decision to publish Juanita Broaddrick's story that claimed President Clinton had raped her. And we were right. However, the nature of the letters took us by surprise. Instead of the anticipated "We believe you, Juanita"/"We don't believe you" reactions, most writers were more concerned with how Salon approached the controversial subject. To fluoridate, or not to fluoridate? That was the question put forth by investigative reporters Mark Hertsgaard and Philip Frazer in their article exploring claims that the much-praised toothpaste supplement is actually harmful. Survey says? Judging from the mail, opinion is split down the middle. Finally, Lori Gottlieb's essay on the suicide of a college classmate created quite a ruckus among readers who wrote in to scold Gottlieb for perceived class-based bias. (Some of their responses are published below.)
_______________GHOSTS ON CAMPUS BY LORI GOTTLIEB (02/22/99)
	Now I know what the gorillas that Dian Fossey lived with felt. Without actually communicating with them, Lori Gottlieb has spoken for the most misunderstood of the various campus oddities: the brooding, shuffling, silent weirdo. They're all suicidal, according to Gottlieb. All prone to creepy classroom outbursts. How in God's name would she know how they feel, while guffawing with her classmates and planning what she'll wear to spring sorority formals? As a former member of this silent but screaming on the inside minority, I managed to look up from the ground long enough to hear the taunts and giggles, particularly from Greeks and jocks. So I'm well aware of the pain they experience. I think the real reason that a lot of these kids end up on college campuses is that they feel the academics there will finally "understand" them. At least in theory, college is supposed to be the place where people can find themselves, free from the constricting conformity of high school. The loosened mores and cultural expectations of college might allow that choking fear and self-loathing to be channeled into a computer, a play or a debate -- or at least a friendly relationship with a former campus weirdo turned professor. In reality, college is a slightly more complex place, but it has this potential. When I arrived on campus, I hardly knew the buildings had roofs and recognized most people by their shoes. I was that scrawny guy eating alone. But encouraged by a few offbeat teachers to write, and find something that inspired me (in my case political science), I managed to raise my head a little. By the time I was a senior, I had a column in the campus newspaper, where I railed against the Greeks who controlled our campus with their inane pageantry. The freak had struck back. But I spent more time on the side of the invisible than the visible, realizing that people spoke freely when they hardly noticed you. So that ghostlike quality certainly had its merits. We don't really need a condescending pat on the shoulder from the likes of Lori Gottlieb. There are a lot of weirdos sitting alone on the quadrangle. Some will end up as your next political science professor and some will wind up dead. But I suspect a few jocks and sorority princesses will pull the trigger too. Look at it this way: When you're a success in the safe haven of a college campus, the punch in the face from the corporate world will be a lot tougher if you've had your ass kissed for four years. We weirdos, in the meantime, have developed the ability to cope with life's shitiness already, so in a way we are more prepared for life's uncertainties. -- Tim Fogle Louisville, Ky. Yes, the ghosts are everywhere. I used to be one. It comes from feeling alone. The way I moved from being a ghost to a person of substance was a deliberate choice on my part combined with a fresh entry to college. This gave me a place where I could start from scratch to discover my social identity. I've been conscious of the hidden folk ever since. With the huge size of cities, the confusion over religion, the fallout of community dances and the plain "public houses" evolving into meat market pubs and bars, there simply aren't many places for fellowship or community. Nobody gathers around the piano anymore. When was the last time you went to a party, met some new folks and played a nice little parlor game? How can we learn how much we have in common when we never get together anymore? -- Erskin L. Cherry Although I appreciate the sentiments expressed in Lori Gottlieb's article, which exhorts us to be nicer to each other, it ultimately left a pretty nasty taste in my mouth. Although I am sure Gottlieb has nothing but the best of motives, she displays an astounding ignorance of class issues and reveals herself to be an untutored child of privilege. I am referring, of course, to the absurd way in which troubled teens and the working class are presented as in need of "saving." Yes, we should pay attention to the lonely waifs on the edges of the social scene at our schools; and yes, we should be nice to those who perform menial tasks, like the janitor who empties our trash or that absurdly grateful crossing guard. However, although I cannot speak for the depressed and lonely, I can speak for those of us who serve others to make a living. And you know what, Ms. Gottlieb? I realize that it may be unusual among your cohorts to treat us like human beings, but we in the working class do not need you "visible people" to save us by exhibiting basic politeness, because we are already saved. -- Marya Janoff Why does Lori Gottlieb think that the people she and her friends don't know are invisible? Invisible to her, perhaps, but it isn't difficult to imagine that these people have fully developed lives entirely apart from self-absorbed college students. For example, the janitor who empties the trash, who is supposedly part of the same invisible crowd as the scrawny boy and his pathetic sandwich, in all likelihood has a family and friends and doesn't depend on the condescending nods of 18-year-olds for his self-esteem. Gottlieb in fact seems to be describing two separate phenomena: the invisibility of the working class -- janitors, crossing guards and so on -- to some privileged people, and the invisibility to some other students of students who are outside the mainstream. And even members of the latter group might not be devastated at solitude. I, for example, have been known to eat lunch alone and even -- gasp -- attend the movies by myself, but I don't plan to commit suicide any time soon -- and if I were, I doubt Gottlieb's deigning to notice me would change my mind. -- Sarah Lawsky N E X T+P A G E+\| Tell your media critic to shut his trap!