Comment Roundup: President Defacer, Drafting Gore, Chi in Porter Square and More
I've been happy to see quite a bit of comment activity on this blog lately. Besides my girlfriend who has no choice but to read what I write and my parents who read just to know what I'm up to, I don't know why the vast majority of you spend time at this blog. But the fact is you do, and with often hundreds of unique hits each day I'm glad many readers actually take the time to participate. Out of respect to those who have taken the time to write, I wanted to highlight some of the comments I've received over the past week or so.
Last Friday I wrote about Dr. Deborah Bershel, a family physician in Davis Square who recently announced to her patients that she would soon be undergoing a male-to-female sex change operation. I praised the Somerville Journal for their relatively non-sensationalist reporting on the matter.
My friend Mark from QueerToday stopped by to agree that "positive articles about trans folks are hard to come by," but rightly cautioned me in the way names and gender pronouns should be used to write about transgendered people:
Jesse in your parenthesis you should say (her new name). Once a person identifies their new name and comes out as trans we should always use the new preferred pronoun and name.
On the same article Matt from jspot suggested that, while the article is positive as far as Herald standards go (the Somerville Journal is owned by the Herald), there still seems to be an underlying sensationalism in how they wrote about Dr. Bershel. He says:
Note the reference to a "bombshell" at the beginning, and the mention of a patient having "no plans to change doctors, despite the socking revelation," and the mentions that the doctor's "looming gender swap violates no state laws or ethics rules."
It almost felt like the Herald wanted someone to have a problem and couldn't find anyone who did. I'm glad they weren't able to write a scandal story, but I'm not sure if the paper gets the credit for that.
I do agree with Matt here and suspect that, in even choosing to write this story the Somerville Journal was looking for a attention grabbing, newspaper selling story. Still, they weren't able to insight any sensationalism with the piece, and even if they don't deserve credit for that have given evidence to the simple fact that one's gender identity is no cause for controversy.
The same day that Dr. Bershel was in the news I also wrote about the horrible redesign job by artist Toshi Katayama at Porter Square. Neil McCabe, editor of The Alewife wrote:
You might be the only one left in the city who reads beyond the front page of the Cambridge Comical. That said: The Alewife was on the story one year ago.
http://thealewife.typepad.com/ we...ers_arrive.html
Neil may be angry and never link to me again if he hears that I actually have a subscription to the Cambridge Chronicle. Though, perhaps it would appease him to know I hardly ever open the paper when it comes in the mail, and I certainly don't plan to renew my subscription once it expires (why pay when it's free on the internet).
Another anonymous commenter on the same post left a link to some interesting new products available at CafePress.
On Monday I wrote about a run-in I had with a rat on Harvard Street, and the trash it was attracted to in front of the Area IV Youth Center. My girlfriend, who was with me when the rodent ran by, outed me as a giant wuss:
i think people should know that when you see rats, you run away screaming like a girl. it's only fair.
Thanks Rachel!
There was a lot of talk all around the state earlier this week when Senator Jarrett Barrios proposed banning Fluff in schools. Andy from Mass Revolution Now! stopped by to say that he agreed Fluff is bad, but that maybe Barrios is being to simplistic in this case:
He can't lose site of the fact that there are a lot of other sugary treats he may want to go after as well.
My friend Melissa who blogs at Sacred Bovine has a different view:
I have to admit, I'm coming down on the side of not-so-terrible-for-you Fluff. Not to mention, I can't *believe* Barrios or any of the other legislators don't have better things to be spending their time on.
An finally on that post an anonymous commenter had the most to say. Among other points s/he suggested that parents need to be the nutrition police, not Barrios:
Why not push an amendment to fix the schools that are falling aprt as apposed to being the nutrition police. Don't you think parents should have some responsibility here, if there kids are eating junk food at school, I am sure they are seeing it from their parents.
I disagree with the basic premise here, that kids simply mimic what their parents do. As I wrote in my post on this issue I agree that parents play the primary role in teaching good nutrition to their kids, but that's not the only factor at play. Peer pressure is a huge influence on any child. When I was growing up my parents forbid super sugary cereal in our house so I took any chance I had to eat Frosted Flakes or Lucky Charms when spending time with friends whose parents bought them such treats. I don't believe that only kids who are served Fluff in the home will be the ones eating it at school.
When I wrote about last night's meeting in Cambridge about the possibility of drafting Al Gore to run for President again in 2008, perhaps I framed it in the wrong way. Linda Pinti who was one of the organizers said that it's not just Cambridge folks who are interested in drafting the erstwhile candidate and suggested we take a look at sites like AlGore.org and DraftGore.com. As for our anonymous friend who posted on the Fluff piece, he suggested that we had better take a close look at Gore:
You should really look at Gore's voting record when he was in the Senate. He is a liberal when it works for him...
I completely agree. Such is the reason why I supported Bill Bradley in the Democratic primaries in 2000 before briefly flirting with Ralph Nader. However, there's a use to being pragmatic and understanding that an even part-time liberal may be our best progressive bet in a Presidential election. Still, I'm not convinced Gore is the one.
Finally, if you've made it this far you must be a dedicated reader so just a quick housekeep note for you. If you visit this blog over the weekend (which you shouldn't because I never post anything new) you may find it out of service. This is only a temporary situation as I transfer my domain to a new service. Have no fear, all should be back by Monday.
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