Don't bait the feds into shuttin' you down

Hey Joe:

I discovered your stuff on that pinko cyber-rag Counterpunch (great site, actually) in the spring of 2005. I've since settled into your website, and I've been singing its praises to friends and family.

I've noticed some of your readers talkin' about being transplanted neo-urbans. That's me -- lived in Baltimore my whole adult life, but I grew up in Garrett County, Maryland. My Dad worked 38 years at Westvaco -- lucky, really. We saw assorted uncles and cousins scramble for work as Celanese, Pittsburg Plate Glass and Kelly Sprinfield folded up. So back in 1977, I joined the great boomer exodus to the big cities.

My youngest brother stayed local, though. He lives just up Route 50 from you in Keyser, West Virginia. He's every inch the decent, salt-of-the-earth, work hard and raise your kids right guy. He models (lives, really) that churchy conservatism in the same endearing/confounding way you've observed in your Winchester neighbors.

A little more about the family -- got a conservative sister, moderate/left sister, libertarian/mason brother, and a brother here in Baltimore who, like me, is a sorry-assed liberal. My seventy-one year old mom sometimes gets down your way to the Veteran's Hospital as a VA volunteer.

I guess I'm writing to confess that I feel kinda bloodless in all this culture war mess (liberal wuss!). I already yearn for the great reconciliation in family and community that can only come after the fray and decay. So when I see you writing about burning and looting, I think "Crimineez, Joe! Don't bait the feds into shuttin' ya down!"

I realize things won't really change until the masses get Howard Beale on the machine, but I'm not facing down the machine. I'm confronting people -- friends, neighbors and family -- who can't believe I don't get it. To them, not reaping the spoils of the Cold War is just plain crazy (we won BIG, right?).

Gotta go, but one more concern. I notice you're promising a few readers signed copies of your book. See where that's going? I'd hate to see you and Miss Barb stuck with two hundred trailer pilots on your porch, beggin' for a free book. I look forward to you signing my store-bought copy soon.

Write on, Bro

Adam
Baltimore