Dissect a letter to the editor

[Monkeyleg]

I was just perusing the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's website to see what the liberal whacko's were having to say, and came across this gem:

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"Letter writer Amy L. Geiger-Hemmer shares her impressions of poverty in response to the Journal Sentinel editorial "The faces of poverty" in Crossroads Sept. 26 (Your opinions, Oct. 2). It would be so much more helpful if these impressions were not the age old, bankrupt, conservative rant.

She suggests that crime, teen pregnancies and personal responsibility are the causes of poverty. Crime and teen pregnancies are results not causes. Personal responsibility plays a role, no doubt, but education, opportunity, jobs with real wages and benefits, health care and a healthy economy are far more to the point.

Abraham Lincoln once said that "the logical proof that slavery is a poor institution is that no man wants it for himself." If you substitute the word poverty for slavery, the quote is a difference without distinction."

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I didn't know that poverty causes pregnancy. I guess my dad really screwed up the "birds and the bees" talk. And crime? My folks were dirt poor in the 1930's, but my dad never stole. I guess he screwed up there, too.

And what, exactly, is a "real wage"? I've made all sorts of dollar (and cent) amounts in jobs over the years. I thought the money was real. If it wasn't, I'm going to the slammer for passing fake bills.

Care to bet that the letter writer is a teacher? Of logic, perhaps?

[Perd Hapley]

It works both ways. Doing stupid things (or doing nothing) can make you poor, but poverty can also create conditions that lead to people doing more stupid things (or doing nothing).

Abraham Lincoln once said that "the logical proof that slavery is a poor institution is that no man wants it for himself." If you substitute the word poverty for slavery, the quote is a difference without distinction.

Abe was wrong, and Amy is wrong. If she doesn't understand that people choose both slavery and poverty every day, then she hasn't seen much, or at least hasn't understood it.

[Jocassee]

In a marriage situation this kind of stuff would be called "irreconcilable differences."

I'll let you work out where that leaves us, but I'll give you a clue--it's gonna make a messy divorce look like a walk in the park.

[HankB]

Abe's statement about slavery could also be applied to a number of other things, from income tax to speed limits.

In terms of poverty . . . I just read an article in The Wall Street Journal that mentions that we have some of the world's richest poor people - not that I'd want to join their ranks myself, but it doesn't generate as much sympathy as liberals would like when it turns out more American poor are worried about paying their cable TV bills than are worried about filling their (not so) empty bellies.