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[Reader comment edited for privacy and language and reposted by the Editor.]

I'm not sure just what this one is supposed to mean; like, "pretty much all you need to know"...like, what does that mean?

Are you mocking these people?

I'm sorry, I'm just a dumb republican who is still trying desperately to grasp the point of your cynical, condescending, incessant negativity. Like, is it that people who don't see what you see are all stupid? Sorry, just clear it up for me please. Thanks!

After all, isn't yours supposed to be the party of "tolerance"? I have to say, I'm an avid fan of your column, and a regular reader to boot, of your not-very-subtle attacks on and generalizations about about millions of people who you've actually never met. Gotta admit dude, it's fascinating.

But this time, I'm just truly baffled. Why does this picture represent '...everything I need to know'?

Now, keep in mind, I don't watch much TV at all, so I'm a bit rusty on all this stuff...but....I think you can help me here.

Also, it's great that you've invoked JFK on your page. You know that we love a guy who drastically cut taxes and caused the economy to grow exponentially. We also love the fact that he stared down bad guys and threatened to blow their mother-f****** a**** off the planet if they didn't pull those missiles from Cuba.

Way to be, JFK ! Definitive, unambiguous, and unafraid of armchair 'experts'. Thanks god (whoops!) JFK was as bad a** as he was, right?

As always, I'm certainly not holding my breath for a response here. After all, didn't you show everyone just how open-minded you are, and 'tolerant' of others' opinions, by setting your email software to automatically delete anything from me?

Boy, that's tolerant...and real open minded, dude.

Either way, I'm getting distracted; would you please tell us again why the photo you included represents "everything" that I need to know?

Thanks again;

-Your friend, the Dumb Republican Who Doesn't Know Any Better (according to your vast generalizations).
 

I am afraid I don't get it either. I happen to feel that the protesters in the Schiavo case are a bit misguided in the intensity of their expressions. They are not the mean spirited right wing in this debate. I guess they fall into the "other" category. I can't identify with their beliefs, but I do believe they are well meaning and sincere. The right wing Pols on the other hand are not. They are cynical, mean spirited and power hungry.

This sad episode seems to be heading toward a close. There are no winners here as everybody is going to feel harmed in the end. Anyway, as much as I agree with your comments over time, I think you are being insensitive here with this image.
 

Both comments appreciated. But we think the degree and subject of our "mean-spiritedness" and "condescension" is presumed a bit by the commentators; all we said was "Pretty much all you need to know..." A picture may be worth a thousand words--allow us to point out we purposely didn't supply any words.

Since you asked, though, we'll admit our feelings about the photo would be different if we thought either of the people in it were in the habit of throwing themselves on the ground in a religiously-inspired fervor for the thousands of people who are starving and who are aware of it.

Or homeless. Or destitute. Or alone.

Who knows--maybe they do. But we doubt it. And even if they are the media isn't covering it--and the photo is about the media as much as anything else.

And if they are Congress and the President aren't flying back from Easter break to do anything about it--and the photo is about them as much as anything else.

Maybe we'd feel differently if the people in the photo had been as zealous for Terri Schiavo in the fifteen years leading up to this point; or even in the first few years after her trauma, when there was hope that she could recover.

And of course there are the thousands of other people with devastating brain injuries--do the people in the photo throw themselves to the ground and pray for each of them?

We just don't think so.

We aren't questioning or mocking their "beliefs". We're questioning their priorities, and their willingness to be sucked into a media and political maelstrom created and sustained by people who have hijacked the sad Terri Schiavo case for their own agenda.

We're very open-minded. We're not very tolerant. And we're truly frightened by the attack on the judiciary being mounted by the Right. It is a conscious effort to replace the rule of law by the rule of men by people who are currently in power. They believe that by replacing the rule of law with mob rule--while they rule the mob--that they'll increase and prolong their power.

This is the true subtext of the public face of the Terri Schiavo matter. And it's the true subject of the photo.