Regarding the July 16 Point of View "Let's hear the yuks, not the yucks":

The New Yorker magazine cover is not funny, and it certainly is not brilliant. This is not due to its "sourpuss" detractors, but rather is a result of its technical failure as satire and/or humor. Satire uses truth to puncture conceits, by putting an unexpected twist on an accepted narrative. The unexpected element functions much like the punchline of a joke, allowing the satire to be perceived as humor.

There is no truth in the cover. It is merely the extreme amplification of a racially tinged hate fantasy currently being propagated by shadowy factions of the political culture. Amplification is not critique. And the narrative in question is not being challenged, either in an expected or unexpected way. It has been lifted and offered in its entirety, even embellished, as if this exaggeration itself were a form of criticism, and not just intellectual laziness.

The cover more likely serves a cathartic purpose for its viewers who are uncomfortable with their own conscious or unconscious prejudices. It permits them to both indulge themselves in this hate fantasy and simultaneously condemn it.

William Waters III, Raleigh

Indecent agenda

The Christian Action League and N.C. Family Policy Council's opposition to language that includes sexual orientation in House Bill 1366 was disturbing. The hollow claim that documenting characteristics for which students are bullied would advance an agenda seems to deny the reality that sexual orientation differs at all. These groups seemed to be interested in justifying their own bigotry, not in keeping schools free from bullying. That was a social agenda any decent person would reject.

Sen. Stan Bingham seemed to have been bullied himself . It is revolting to see this kind of action from those who would hold themselves up as moralists, and those naming Christ, who embraced all with love, especially those bullied and outcast by society.

Jonathan Mull, Cary

It was about violence

Were the naysayers to the anti-bullying bill so out of touch that they didn't know that anti-gay epithets are now generic, all-purpose insults hurled at any child who is different, regardless of sexual orientation?

Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, America's deadliest school shooters, faced "anti-gay" bullying at Columbine High School before their 1999 killing spree, as did school shooters in Kansas in 1997 and in California in 2001. Heterosexual kids are now shooting other heterosexual kids in America because they were the targets of "anti-gay" bullying! Do we want a Columbine-type tragedy in North Carolina?

Folks need to wake up! This bill was about preventing violence against all children, not a debate over homosexuality.

We'll discuss whether gay children need a safe place to learn, too, some other time.

Jean Aycock, M.D. , Cary

Clear path on bullying

Regarding House Bill 1366, a proposed school safety law, I agree with the comment made by Bill Brooks that "schools should prohibit bullying for any reason." But Brooks' organization condemns gay and lesbian sexual orientation as deviant and threatening, so would Brooks and his group stop the bullying or justify it as provoked by "deviant sexual behavior"?

The controversial paragraph in Bill 1366 provided a clear and comprehensive definition of bullying behavior that would have empowered schools and all organizations to develop corrective measures that could not be easily sidestepped or compromised by anyone, including conservative groups with moral agendas.

Next page >