Keeping a Home Base Here
I hope you don’t have to be a young dude to read the Living Out Loud column. I’m in my sixties, just like Mick Jagger, but I feel young at heart.
I read Larry Gross’ “Stones in the Road” column (issue of Jan. 28) and could relate to it. I have three boys grown up and moved away. The oldest is in St. Louis, the middle one in L.A. and the youngest in Chicago. They couldn’t wait to leave this city.
Like Gross, I’ve always talked about moving someplace else and have no real reason to stay in Cincinnati, but I’m still here. I tell myself my kids need a home base to return to and they wouldn’t have it if I moved my old bones to Florida.
I guess that’s my stone in the road. Probably every parent has a few. — Jon Wolf, Western Hills
He’s an Interesting Writer
I like Larry Gross’ Living Out Loud columns. Most are quite varied, but he does have a bit of a formula going and “Stones in the Road” (issue of Jan. 28) is a good example of it.
Gross takes a lot of little “plots” and blends them together with a larger theme overlooking all of the little things going on. It’s really quite interesting. He forces the reader to pay attention.
I’m a student at UC and want to be a writer someday, and I like the way Gross kicks things around outside of the box. If he keeps writing, I’ll keep reading. He’s the most interesting writer we have here. — Gay Hopkins, Clifton
His Writing Couldn’t Be Worse
I read Larry Gross’ pointless “Stones in the Road” column (issue of Jan. 27) twice trying to find a point. I didn’t, which is always the case with his column.
Before any more trees are cut down to print Gross’ odd assorted views, have him go see a doctor and get some medication for his A.D.D. It surely couldn’t make his writing any worse. — Mark Kramer, Dent
Obama’s Cult of Personality
In the 25 or so years I’ve been following politics in the United States, I have never seen media coverage of an individual that borders on promoting a “cult of personality” as Barack Obama, as evidenced in your inauguration coverage (“Rekindle the Spirit With Inauguration,” issue of Jan. 14).
It never fails to amaze me how foolishly we elect the leaders of this country. We end up electing someone with virtually no experience in government to lead us out of the worst financial disaster in our country’s history. Keep in mind that this disaster hasn’t yet run its full course.
Still, the media paint a picture of President Obama as a great savior before he’s even executed one of his duly sworn duties. He hasn’t merited the consideration of greatness bestowed on past presidents because he hasn’t even completed one month in office, not to mention a full term.
In addition to the media’s cultic adulation of President Obama is this preoccupation with the election of the first black president. President Obama is not an African-American any more than I’m a Polish- American or Irish- American. He is a black American who happens to have African heritage, as I’m a white American who happens to have Polish and Irish heritage.
As for the election, Donald Duck could have beaten the Republican nominee, so to suggest that America has made a cultural shift toward better race relations by electing the first black president is making an error in logic, referred to as a faulty cause. If the economy was strong and foreign policy not such a mess, would the election have turned out differently? We’ll never know.
The only thing certain now is that President Obama is “on the clock” and time waits for no one. — Joe Bialek, Cleveland
