Letter from Larae W. Essman
Media – April 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine
Martha,
A little slow getting to the January, 2003
I assume you are in occasional touch with George Sibley. His piece “On the Ground with the Plutocracy” was so well done that I need to express my gratitude. And since I feel that “plutocracy” is my word, a word I have been using for some time now to describe the Bushmen, it is particularly gratifying to see someone use it in such a clear and persuasive way.
I also wonder if Mr. Sibley would like to add the word “theocratic” in conjunction with plutocracy. Whether George Bush’s inclination toward religiosity is genuine, although vouched for by numerous commentators is still inconclusive in my opinion. Some of the Bushmen seem pietistic Fundamentalists but whether their motives are truly religious, or a veil for other purposes such as the subjugation of women, is still open to debate. From the accumulating evidence, it seems fairly obvious that at least some of the Bushmen are using their piety or pietism to turn us, and particularly women, back to a previous era.
Secondly, I thought your article, Martha, on “What We Don’t Know Is Hurting Us” was excellent. As you mentioned, it is frustrating in the extreme to watch, and listen to, the locker-room interviews when entire “9News” broadcasts have consisted of two shootings in greater Denver, a usually inaccurate look at the weather, and a football/baseball/and a basketball bonanza. It is habit more than interest that causes my husband and I to turn on television at ten.
I know that TV news editors and advertisers are no longer interested in whether or not we know anything about world news, particularly since we are no longer in the age bracket they wish to interest. I wonder how people who rely on TV news can know enough about our own government to vote. Perhaps that explains why we have our current administration, a governing body that even now is busy trying to loosen the rules governing the concentration of ownership in newspapers, and radio and television stations.
And I wonder if we can rely on a long life for NPR?
Again, many thanks to you and George Sibley for your efforts to educate and inform.
With appreciation
Larae W. Essman
Estes Park