Glass Houses
Dear Sirs, The points raised in your editorial "Veering toward the gutter" (1/24/02) are well-taken, and I will certainly attempt to refrain from making what might be perceived as personal attacks on Mr. Gully Stanford in the future. Furthermore, I stand corrected as to Mr. Stanford's first name and professional background, which derived from misinformation supplied to me. However, I would cite several mitigating factors. First, my few mildly disparaging references to Mr. Stanford appeared as comments in an informal email, rather than in any published opinion piece or statement to the media, for which I would argue much more critical standards apply. Similarly, I do hope that my rather innocuous apparent factual errors regarding Mr. Stanford's name and profession are seen as occurring in this context, where fact-checking standards are obviously far less rigorous. Second, my ironic references to Mr. Stanford's Anglo-Irish background and accent should be placed in the context of his own arguably far harsher and much more numerous preceding personal attacks on me---which unlike mine appeared both in print and on camera---as an ignorant outsider and rich troublemaker. Since I myself come from a non-English-speaking immigrant family background and live in nearby California, I found it highly ironic that I would be so denounced by someone whose personal roots were in an English-speaking country some 8000 miles away. I trust Mr. Stanford and his side will temper their own rhetoric in the future, and that you will thoroughly police such behavior. Finally, I might note that your own newspages recently carried a detailed profile of my activities, which, as was noted in someone's published letter to the editor attached below, seemed to dwell on negative personal characteristics. Glass houses and all that... http://www.onenation.org/0111/111201sub.htm |