published on August 14, 2024 in Front Page News

Opinion | No Trump, comments sections, redheads or O.J. Simpson

Every week, The Post runs a collection of letters of readers’ grievances — pointing out grammatical mistakes, missing coverage and inconsistencies. These letters tell us what we did wrong and, occasionally, offer praise. Here, we present this week’s Free for All letters.

As a former copy desk editor, I was rankled to see a reference to a “redheaded homewrecker” in the April 6 Style article “Thanks to Beyoncé, a reprise in attention for Jolenes.”

Unless someone has an irritated scalp, a head is not that color. Only the follicles have color. So, the correct term, which the article used elsewhere, should be “red-haired.”

David H. Brown, North Bethesda

If only we had little grey cells, we wouldn’t have little gray cells

I am so frustrated by the format of the Comics pages. Why does the paper continue to shrink the font size? Why print comics that use a gray background that makes the dialogue almost invisible?

I know newspapers are fighting to survive. They don’t help their own cause by shrinking the size of each section and making consumption of their print product difficult. Maybe The Post should just go completely digital.

Bob Boxwell, Lusby, Md.

Big gray cells

I am curious why The Post seems to be using a dark gray filter on many of the photographs it publishes. This is visible online, but it’s especially apparent in the print edition. What’s the thinking behind this strange trend? Is it a result of something different in the ink or paper The Post is using? And when will we get back to normal?

Richard E. Hoagland, Washington

No comment

The internet is a wonderful thing, but it has also created giant problems. And I’m not talking about “disinformation,” which is very much in the eye of the beholder.

The shocking polarization of our society has coincided with one internet innovation over which newspapers have some control: the comments section. These spaces grant formerly civilized people permission to attack each other anonymously with outlandish hyperbole, shameless distortions, gratuitous vituperation and outright name-calling, none of which they would allow themselves in face-to-face conversation. And this spleen-venting free-for-all bleeds over into what’s permissible in our political discourse.

I offer this modest proposal: Get rid of the comments section. Or at least limit its use to people who will identify themselves with their real names. I realize that struggling newspapers might not find it attractive to eliminate one of their most popular features. But this would, at a stroke, put a stop to all this pernicious bloviating. And maybe put us on the road to a much more reasonable, intelligent and productive public discourse.

Eric Brandt, Brookline, Mass.

Shelve the saltiness about ‘Cupboard’

The April 14 Metro obituary for Lynne Reid Banks, “Author charmed young readers with ‘The Indian in the Cupboard’ series,” spoke to her signature contribution, “The Indian in the Cupboard,” which with its sequels has been a popular children’s tale on both sides of the Atlantic for generations.

Included in the article was a discussion of criticism of the work, articulated in a 1986 book review in The Post by Louise Erdrich, a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa. Erdrich, in defense of Native American peoples, described the portrayal of the American Indian character Little Bear as demeaning and inaccurate. She charged Banks with depicting him as unpleasant and unoriginal, lacking innate human characteristics of intelligence, tenderness and compassion.

Though Erdrich had a legitimate point, which I am not contesting, it seems that “The Indian in the Cupboard” is more good than bad, more positive than negative and within the normal and reasonable boundaries of poetic license for writing fiction. Critique and criticism broaden our knowledge of any subject, but an insistence on “correctness” not required in context can deprive a story of the author’s intent.

Imagine what sort of book “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” might be if Huck’s companion on the raft trip down the Mississippi River was an exchange student from Cameroon. Or what value “Pride and Prejudice” would have if Elizabeth Bennet decided to pursue a career instead of a good marriage.

William A. McCollam, Fairfax

Excursions to the Chesapeake, booked

Christopher Tilghman’s elegant tribute to John Barth in his April 15 op-ed, “The Chesapeake is big. Its poets are few. Why?,” drew attention to a few other beloved Chesapeake authors. But Tilghman omitted a treasure analogous to what Herman Melville did for whales in “Moby-Dick”: William W. Warner’s Pulitzer Prize-winning portrait of Chesapeake crabs and the men who harvest them, “Beautiful Swimmers: Watermen, Crabs and the Chesapeake Bay.”

Jack Lahr, Annapolis

I have a suggestion for Christopher Tilghman: Take a look at the coffee table book “Jericho: The South Beheld.” The book is a compendium of poetic writing focusing on the South by James Dickey accompanied by paintings by Hubert Shuptrine. One section of this engaging book is “The Land and the Water,” with scenes and writing that could easily remind him of the Chesapeake Bay. Despite being published in 1974, this book offers a timeless look at the land and water that could encompass the whole Eastern Shore.

Carol Morgan, Washington

She writes well, for a critic

Regarding “The poets who captured war’s agony and allure,” Julia M. Klein’s April 14 Book World review of Michael Korda’s “Muse of Fire: World War I as Seen Through the Lives of the Soldier Poets”:

As we age, we inevitably gain more experience, more insight and more perspective. But ageism is apparently still acceptable. Klein might have meant it as a compliment when she wrote of Korda that “at 90, he still writes engrossing prose.” But the line reads like a slight.

Muriel Cole, Chestertown, Md.

In 1994, O.J. Simpson did what no other NFL running back had done

It is shameful that The Post chose to laud the football record of a domestic abuser turned murderer, armed robber and kidnapper in the April 11 online article “In 1973, O.J. Simpson did what no other NFL running back had done.” We have a massive problem with hatred and violence against women in our culture. Men should know that no matter how “great” their professional or athletic achievements might be, if they abuse women they are beneath contempt and the rest means nothing. Simpson’s physical prowess makes the abuse all the more horrific. As far as I am concerned, they should change the name of the Heisman Trophy because this monster has his name associated with it. Articles like this one do real harm to efforts to change public discourse and attitudes about domestic violence.

Share this articleShare

Margo DeAngelo, New York

A more uplifting pursuit

Thanks so much for the wonderful April 19 Metro article “He forgave the man who killed his son, and helped free him from prison.”

I am an Episcopal priest, and when I read that day’s paper, I was preparing a sermon for the Fourth Sunday of Easter on April 21. In our tradition, this is called Good Shepherd Sunday, and we focus on Jesus as the good shepherd who cares for his sheep. As I read the article, I was working on the question “Why would the resurrected Jesus come back to hang out with the very people who denied him, abandoned him, and watched him be tortured and crucified?” The answer: “Because he is the good shepherd who pursues us, forgives us and will not abandon us.”

I wept aloud when I read about Azim Khamisa’s pursuit of Tony Hicks, his son’s murderer, and his forgiveness of Hicks, which ultimately brought him to new life. Khamisa is from a religious tradition different from my own, but he is a good shepherd in every way. In these divisive and troubling times, so many of my fellow Christians are all too ready to condemn other faiths, failing to recognize that God’s love and grace work from a larger framework than they could ever imagine. It’s great to see such an inspiring story in the midst of so much unhappy news.

John McDuffie, Bethesda

I’m on the top of the world lookin’ down on creation

Sixty years ago, I was a pen and ink cartographer. I was delighted to see the map that accompanied the April 13 front-page article “‘The mountains are … trying to kill you.’” It was clear and concise and provided a wealth of visual information to supplement that contained in the article. The use of strong, contrasting elements emphasized the spatial and political relationships playing out where countries meet at the top of our world.

Please extend my appreciation for a job well done to Post cartographer Laris Karklis.

Russell R. Brown, Ashburn

It’s all downhill from here

As I read the April 20 Metro article “Formula One speedster to roar through D.C. on Saturday” in my print edition of The Post, I came upon the words “The event map can be found here.”

I pushed very hard with my index finger on the word “here,” but, alas, nothing appeared. So I turned to the continuation of the article two pages later, but, again, no map. Readers of the print version have become second-class consumers. I had to look online to find the multicolor map of the event. Shouldn’t there be two versions of an article if there is an omission in the translation from digital to print articles?

Barbara Waite-Jaques, Silver Spring

Look, Pa, no hands

Regarding the April 4 front page-article “A push for more rules amid the rise of robot trucks.”

This history of driverless trucks failed to mention the seven-mile open-access highway run by a fully autonomous semitruck with trailer conducted by Starsky Robotics in February 2018. This run, which was conducted with no humans in the cab, is no secret; it was featured on “60 Minutes” in 2021. Because of funding challenges, the company shut down in March 2020. Yes, I’m the father of company co-founder Stefan Seltz-Axmacher. But even if I weren’t, I’d think the company’s accomplishments deserved an acknowledgement for the sake of completeness.

Fred Axmacher, Rockville

Wow, a driverless podcast

I listened to “Biden is pushing EVs. Who actually wants them?,” the March 27 episode of The Post’s new Opinion podcast, “Impromptu,” with great excitement because I own a 2017 Tesla Model S.

But after I finished listening to the discussion, I wished the columnists had talked to an EV user (for instance, me) who lives in a condo with an underground garage (me) who has taken a cross-country trip (me) who is thrilled with the comfort, safety and savings (also me). For good measure, they might have featured a thrilled rural EV owner who drives 100 miles a day, then plugs their vehicle in at home, saving thousands of dollars on transportation.

Carrie Scherpelz, Madison, Wis.

We’re the best at covering coverups

Leave it to The Post’s erudite writers to come up with a spot-on, though seldom seen, jargonistic stand-in for “eclipse.”

In the April 9 front-page article “Screams, tears as eclipse stuns,” I was stopped short upon reading that “forecasts of stubborn clouds threatened … the stunning syzygy.”

“Syzygy”? English, really? An improvisation of some kind? A typo? My word!

A check with Merriam-Webster confirms it is indeed genuine, standard English (though Greek in origin), meaning “the nearly straight-line configuration of three celestial bodies (such as the sun, moon, and earth during a solar or lunar eclipse).”

Who knew? Give it up for The Post’s science scribes.

Steve Horwitz, Odenton, Md.

Totally awesome

I wanted to send a note of immense, if slightly belated, gratitude to Matthew Cappucci for his March 8 online Perspective, “Why traveling to witness a total solar eclipse is so worth it.”

I witnessed a partial eclipse on the National Mall in August 2017, and it was a great experience. I wasn’t thinking much about this year’s eclipse and its path of totality until I read Cappucci’s entreaty. He persuaded me to immediately research locales in the path and make plans to travel. I drove from Arlington to the Cleveland Lakefront Nature Preserve, arriving just as the show was about to begin. Viewing on the rocky shore of Lake Erie was an absolutely awe-inspiring experience. We saw the reddish hues of “dawn” reflected on the water, the corona and prominences, stars in the darkened sky, and the “incomparable” visage of a black sun. Thank you, Mr. Cappucci — your inspired post created a new umbraphile.

D.J. Loop, Arlington

Good idea. We’ll do this every Smondnesday, starting in Febtember.

Would it be possible to choose one day a week when the word “Trump” does not appear in The Post?

Readers need some relief from the fascination journalists have with the former president. I am at the point where I want to give up news totally because it’s deafening. Try to help us decompress. This obsession with everything Donald Trump and with Melania Trump is depressing and subversive — you are playing into his hands. He will shrivel up if he doesn’t see his name in the news every day.

Try a Trump-free day, and consider the news that would make!

Michele McFaull, Los Angeles

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7uK3SoaCnn6Sku7G70q1lnKedZLyxtc2ipqerX2d9c4COaWtoamZkv6awx56YnatdnrultcCnZJytoJe8or7DZqmam5moum6yzqueoq6Zo7Ruu8lo