Published: November 02, 2009 07:27 pm      

CURRAN: Responding to slightly insane letter writer

I love Steve Fetter — even if he is a flaming pinko commie. Steve’s the guy that has recently become a prolific writer of letters to the editor of this paper.

I’ve seen these letters and wondered if this Steve Fetter was my Steve Fetter. That mystery was solved last week as Steve wrote in to defend me against those confused and likely racist souls who believe if someone disagrees with President Barack Obama’s policy preferences, they must be racist — souls I’ve been confronted with directly and indirectly over the past months.

Steve raised three points in his letter. He said those calling me a racist must not know me and suggested I relate a story that proves I’ve spent time with black people. He also takes a position in the debate about inflammatory words that detract from serious discourse.

Then, for his third point, Steve goes entirely loony and writes, “Question — whether Kelley’s a real blonde! Question — her beliefs?” I have no idea where he was going with this.

About six years ago, Steve Fetter and I attended a fundraiser dinner for The Kentucky Alliance Against Racism and Political Repression. Steve also took his friend’s teenage son, who turned out to be a 9-foot giant kid — a problem since Steve’s truck was only about 2 1/2 feet wide and held together by blazingly liberal bumper stickers.

The keynote speaker was Congressman John Conyers, but he wasn’t the most impressive. As a young woman from Western Kentucky University was being introduced, Steve’s young friend began getting excited.

We were told this woman had effectively single-handedly stood up to the Ku Klux Klan at a rally in Bowling Green. As she related the story, she hadn’t planned on joining the large group of WKU students going to confront the Klan with a counter-rally, but found herself drawn there sometime after it began.

She emotionally described a deeply intense feeling of hurt, seeing these angry people, not understanding why they hated her. She walked into the empty zone between the two groups of protesters, toward the Klansmen, calmly, but with tears streaming down her face.

Before her arrival, the Klan was defiant in opposition to the large crowd assembled across from them. Confronted by this one girl, they were shamed away. The rally broke up within minutes.

I had no luck finding this young woman’s name while writing, but Steve’s young guest knew who she was. His class at school had just finished discussing her triumph over the Klan. He was so excited and so moved that he was getting to see this woman and hear her speak.

Kids today aren’t all bad. Not one to pass up an opportunity to embarrass an awkward teenage male, I approached the woman when the opportunity arose, explained how excited this kid was and sort of dragged the suddenly adorably shy young man over to meet her.

There’s Steve’s story. Oh, and Conyers, the WKU student and young man were all black. Steve Fetter, on the other hand, is almost unbelievably white.

He also believes, “when you use words like ‘racist,’ ‘Nazi,’ ‘Communism,’ ‘evil,’ ‘socialist,’ those are words that deflect from the process of debate, and only inflame, not solve or arrive at a reasonable solution.”

He goes on to suggest the use of these code words means the users don’t have a strong enough grasp of the subject to describe it differently. He’s mostly wrong, but not alone in this view.

No word is inherently harmful. Some are seemingly toxic. In American English, the two big ones both happen to start with “n.” Steve listed one. There are still benign exceptions, even with n-words.

One is funny as heck when it comes out of Chris Rock’s mouth. The other is harmlessly witty when Jerry Seinfeld is trying to get soup. Both n-words are ugly when the person hurling them is ugly.

Some of those words, such “socialist,” “Communism,” and “racist” describe real people or ideas that are alive and well today. Calling them something different doesn’t change what they are, and we need to know what they are so we can vigilantly oppose them. “Evil,” may also be a valid term in some cases, such as when describing Nazis.

In the case of “socialist” and “Communism” these are legitimate — if wrong-headed — political philosophies relevant to today’s discourse — just read Steve’s letters. Political science professors, civics and history teachers don’t inflame anything by honestly explaining them. What are members of the Communist Party to think when they hear the label they boast can’t be used responsibly?

As to Steve’s last point, my blondeness: define real blonde.

Steve’s most recent letter — as of this writing — was a response to another letter writer, and in it he’s encouraging us to continue the debate on health care reform, a worthy suggestion. I’ll probably take him up on it. Although, if Steve is going to keep writing letters, he needs to start double-checking names. John Krueger prefers to be called John rather than Joe, for example.

Cool guys like Steve Fetter prove people can disagree about politics, not banish the subject from conversation and still stay cool. We just can’t take ourselves or opinions too seriously.



Jeffersonville resident Kelley Curran is thinking of coloring her blonde hair and discovered that the shade she likes best is called “flaming pinko.” Write her at kelinawriterhat@aol.com