Mailbag: Follow-up Comment from Strident in Sacramento (I presume)

Got another letter. I think this one is also from Strident in Sacramento (judging from the syntax). That's fine - it saves me from having to come up with another stupid nick-name for the anonymous emailer.

This one starts out with a bang.

Rico: You seem to be a throwback to the 19th Century "Know Nothing" Movement.

I remind you of a nineteenth century political party unified by fears of Catholic immigration? Really? Wow. People have often said to me that I owe my ascendancy to the the collapse of the Whig Party following widespread internal dissatisfaction over the Kansas-Nebraska Act. I could never figure out what they meant...

You throw out scurrilous opinions without really getting to know this organization, its activities, its purposes, its people.

You don't know me. How would you know how much I know about WSWA? Or about the countless activists who've shared their WSWA experiences with me? Or the journalists who have written about WSWA and NATLFED?

Well, wait a minute, I want to be fair. Maybe you have a valid point to make, maybe you have some real information that would put WSWA in a different light, something that would really move our understanding forward...

I don't know them either,

Uhhhh.

but I'm willing to give them a even break.

OK - I am still recovering from "I don't know them either."

I am just going to propose a guideline for future emailers. It is a low standard, but let's see if we can work with it.

In the future, please refrain from sending opinionated, belligerent emails about things that EVEN YOU don't think you know anything about.