Tag:letter | The Fireside Post letter | The Fireside Post
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All Posts Tagged With: "letter"

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Dear Oprah – You Are Mistaken About Addiction

I wrote an email to Oprah.  Her address is oprah@oprah.net.  Some of the attachments from the email are included as Adobe pdf images following the text in this post.  The Cisco Synopsis follows. Dear Oprah, Your daily talk show has inspired many, including myself.  But I am troubled at something you said.  While interviewing Ralph […]

14Jun2011 | | Comments Off on Dear Oprah – You Are Mistaken About Addiction | Continued
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Responding to Christians

Son, Lay off the Betty Bowers web site – your judgment is beginning to drift. Just kidding. I am extremely pleased with you. I am pleased with your ability with the written word and with your willingness to tackle tough issues. I fear that your interpretation of my post was based more on how you […]

27Sep2007 | | Comments Off on Responding to Christians | Continued
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Proud to be an American!

Son, I wear my patriotism with pride. I am embarrassed by the representation of our American Republic by our current Presidential Administration. The current flavor of our Government is not what the Founding Fathers had in mind. The Second Amendment is not more important than the First Amendment, or the Fourth or the Fifth – […]

18Sep2007 | | Comments Off on Proud to be an American! | Continued
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Founding Fathers – Liberals all!

Son, I am fascinated by your ideology. You have achieved my dream for you – a dream that you would grow to be an independent thinker – a dream that you would base your thoughts on basic, solid, values. Your values are solid – belief in the basic goodness of humanity, belief in progress (let’s […]

18Sep2007 | | Comments Off on Founding Fathers – Liberals all! | Continued
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Babies Vs. Politicians: Who is Smarter?

Son, A national magazine recently had an article titled ‘Babies Vs. Chimps.” It felt like I was reading an article on ‘Babies Vs. American Politicians.” The study examined theories of general-intelligence versus cultural-intelligence. The different study groups “performed about equally well on ‘physical learning’ – locating hidden objects…understanding concepts of more and less, using a […]

17Sep2007 | | Comments Off on Babies Vs. Politicians: Who is Smarter? | Continued
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Angry Grandfathers Do Not Pray!

Son, I’m with you.  A continued, recurring illness in your little four year old girl is terribly frustrating.  One of my favorite optimistic sayings is, “We should be grateful that we live in an era of modern medicine.”   But what do we do when the health care system comes up short? I don’t have […]

16Sep2007 | | Comments Off on Angry Grandfathers Do Not Pray! | Continued
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Praying for Help

Dad, It is Sunday morning and your granddaughter has a fever again. She finished her antibiotics two days a go, and this is becoming a frustratingly familiar story.  People have been suggesting alternative medicines, our neighbor is a chiropractor, my mother-in-law is concerned about all of the antibiotics that my daughter is taking. At first, […]

16Sep2007 | | 1 comment | Continued
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Let Us Have Peace, Shall We?

Dad, Our ship’s boatswain used to tell us, “look for problems, you’ll find them. Look for solutions, you’ll not find problems.” I think this can be applied to our current political climate. I don’t like the administration, but I don’t want to hear about it anymore. I want us all to get to work on […]

13Sep2007 | | Comments Off on Let Us Have Peace, Shall We? | Continued
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Denial – Outdated Mythology

Son, There is a huge mistake by Addiction Treatment Professionals, law enforcement, and the courts in addressing the problem of alcohol and drug addiction. The dominant philosophy the past thirty years has been that the central problem is one of denial. That is to say, the belief that alcoholics and addicts have abnormally robust denial […]

12Sep2007 | | Comments Off on Denial – Outdated Mythology | Continued
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Addictions – Losing Control

Son, Dante wrote The Inferno. I am not sure about this – anyone can correct me if they wish, but I think Dante described the greatest sin as giving up control of your life to something external – gluttony, sloth, envy, greed, power, or addiction. The punishment for violating the greatest sin was total loss […]

11Sep2007 | | Comments Off on Addictions – Losing Control | Continued
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George W. Bush Presidential Library

Son, People can be funny, creative, facetious and sarcastic. Our local newspaper has a column called “It’s your call.” They allow people to call in and leave comments. There is little editing and the column gets heavy criticism from local officials. Today there is a clever comment: How about putting the George Bush Presidential Library […]

11Sep2007 | | Comments Off on George W. Bush Presidential Library | Continued
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the politics of the modern crusades…

Dad I am a Democrat today because I cannot subscribe to the politics of the modern crusades. I have, in the past, been afraid to state a political position or defend a political candidate. I have also been reluctant to attack a public figure for fear that I might find in my heart that I […]

11Sep2007 | | 2 comments | Continued
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My Opinion on Convictions

Son, I admire your determination. Opinions are the fodder of intellect, just academic talk until applied. Conviction is the result of integrating opinion with life experience. Our life experience will test our opinions – if we come out the other side with the same opinion then we call it conviction. We know many things – […]

10Sep2007 | | Comments Off on My Opinion on Convictions | Continued
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Bush says ‘Never!’ how smart is that

Son, I know a lot of people my age who, over time, have violated their own principles. They said “NEVER!” They were wrong. They were wrong to say never and they were wrong to violate their own principles. “Never” is a word that denies our own humanness. George double-u Bush is one of those folks […]

10Sep2007 | | 2 comments | Continued
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The pain of cultural frontiers

Son, You are exploring cultural frontiers. You have left the safe harbor of familiarity to seek new ideas about living. Like Lewis and Clark, you find fear and uncertainty. I admire your courage. What is courage, Son? When people act on their convictions, even knowing that there will be pain associated with their behavior, we […]

7Sep2007 | | 2 comments | Continued
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On being a Democrat

Son, You happen to live in a state that has a presidential primary. Thus there is a practical need to declare a party affiliation. I like your choice for the Democratic candidate – but like many others I have reservations. Like most others, I want the corruption of a very good government system to end. […]

6Sep2007 | | Comments Off on On being a Democrat | Continued
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So, I’m a Democrat…

Dad, I am becoming keenly aware that there are really three people that are involved in this blog. Me, you, and the reader. Unlike traditional letters, this form of communication is expressly public, and we embrace that difference so that others may benefit from the conversation that takes place here. I have changed the look, […]

5Sep2007 | | Comments Off on So, I’m a Democrat… | Continued
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All Politics is local – candidates for President

Son, Speaking of Social Security – who has the best plan? When Franklin D. Roosevelt came up with the idea he cleverly gave his plan a name that few could argue with. Who could argue with the idea of being socially secure – everyone wants that! Forty years later Lyndon B. Johnson added Medicare. Another […]

4Sep2007 | | Comments Off on All Politics is local – candidates for President | Continued