LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Celebrity hucksters
There is nothing more irritating in our culture of exploitation in America than happy-go-lucky celebrities turned spokespersons for hyaluronic face cream, back pain medicine, and many other consumer products. They are acting for the benefit of their own personal brand first, for the 1 percent class second, and for the hapless consumer last.
These celebrities, successful in high visibility careers like music, acting, or sports, pitch “goods” and services the working poor don’t need, shouldn’t want, and must borrow to pay for.
Today’s entertainer salespersons bring to mind other varieties of suspect professionals like ambulance chasers, tax collectors, sex workers, and payday loan sharks.
They are a parade of villains and a perp walk of beauty and brawn that just keeps taking and taking ‘til everyone in 99 percent America is hurting. Kimball Shinkoskey Woods Cross, Utah
Thank Pixler for his service
The irony in a couple of recent Letters to the Editor is almost uncanny. In a letter from Elaine Hayes/harris, she said she has a “dream where an individual can express their views on whatever subject they choose without retaliation.” Then in a letter next to hers from Todd Pixler, he found his mailbox stuffed with hateful and threatening messages in response to a letter he submitted to the paper. I could only think, “Keep on dreaming Elaine.”
I would like to respond to Todd’s letter where, in addressing the person who stuffed his mailbox with hateful diatribe, he said, “Please don’t question my loyalty to this country.”
Last year I published a book titled, “We Marched Through Hell: A Rural High School’s Service in the Vietnam War and Life in its Aftermath.” The majority of information in the book came from interviews with local veterans who went to Porterville High School in the 1960s and then served in Vietnam after graduation. Todd Pixler was one of the war veterans I interviewed.
Todd served in the Army where his responsibility was to transport reinforcements, ammunition, and anything else the troops needed in the bush. Due to its bravery, his unit was eventually awarded the Bronze Star for bravery in action. There is not enough room here to do justice to the heroism that Todd, and all of our Vietnam War veterans, displayed during the war.
So, to the person who stuffed Todd’s mailbox with hateful diatribe, the next time you sneak up to his house in the cover of darkness, instead of stuffing his mailbox, knock on his door. And then when he opens the door, shake his hand. Then, thank him for his service in Vietnam. Thank him for staying in our country to fight in an unpopular war when some of his family members encouraged him to move to Canada. Thank him for volunteering for hazardous duty when others wouldn’t. And then after you thank him, welcome him home.
If there were more acts of Christian love and compassion like this, Elaine’s dream may come true after all.
Steven Schultz Terra Bella