It all makes perfect sense when you realize that Lake Wobegon is a dystopia
I actually wrote and sent a response to Garrison Keillor’s anti-Semitic Xmas column, in which he says, among other things,
If you don’t believe Jesus was God, OK, go write your own damn “Silent Night” and leave ours alone. This is spiritual piracy and cultural elitism, and we Christians have stood for it long enough. And all those lousy holiday songs by Jewish guys that trash up the malls every year, Rudolph and the chestnuts and the rest of that dreck. Did one of our guys write “Grab your loafers, come along if you wanna, and we’ll blow that shofar for Rosh Hashanah”? No, we didn’t.
Unsurprisingly, my email — sent to the address given at the end of the column — bounced. I’m looking for other ways to get it to him. Perhaps he’ll print all the responses out and line them up on him mantel above the garlands.
In the meantime, thought I’d share. Happy Hannukah.
From: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Subject: Your appallingly ugly Xmas column
Date: December 18, 2009 7:24:23 PM PST
To: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Sir;
Do you no longer pause to think before you unburden yourself of your bigotry by way of your keyboard?
You have done harm here, with no concommitant gain in anything of value: not humor, not understanding, not literary merit.
You are lucky enough to have a platform that affords you some measure of attention, one you have earned through your own hard work and good fortune. You are not obligated as a writer to use that platform other than as you see fit. You do, however, have an obligation as a human being to refrain from doing needless harm to others. This column fails rather stunningly to fulfill that obligation.
You owe your readers — all of them, Jewish and otherwise — an apology.
Comments
He was joking! Right? Right… ?
Oy.
Meanwhile, it’s Makihiki. Olie!
I couldn’t figure out how to send the editors an email, but I did leave a comment there. I was thoroughly disgusted by what he wrote.
Having read the piece, I see two reasonable interpretations.
1. The whole thing is satire. (The start certainly points in that direction.)
2. The piece is serious, but, in context, he’s going after the Unitarians who rewrote “Silent Night”. The part about Jewish guys is dry humor and, well, true. (And yes, I’m Jewish.)
=v= Satire’s basically no good and not funny when it’s aimed at the powerless.
Israel Baline, one of the finest songwriters of the 20th Century, had assimilation shoved down his throat at every turn. Having his name changed to Irving freakin’ Berlin wasn’t enough; he was expected to churn out lyrics loyal to Christianity and whatever the military was up to at the time. What a horrible burden to pile onto a musical genius.
When I’m subjected to Xmas songs I am in fact grateful when I come across one done by the Tin Pan Alley crowd, and even more grateful for instrumental/jazzy renditions that forgo the lyrics.
I found it morbidly delightful, much in the same way one can’t help but watch a train wreck. Satire or not, it’s the kind of foolishness one sees when a thief stands up and demands that other thieves not steal his stuff, or that original owners not try to take back their stolen possessions (since Christmas is by no means a Christian holiday and is in fact a conglomeration of pagan holidays and rituals put into place by Pope Julius I as a means to transition pagan Romans from existing winter and solstice celebrations to something more in line with the hottest new religion at the time: Christianity. In his own words, he’s defending with offense a holiday that is in every sense “spiritual piracy and cultural elitism.”).
It always tickles me to see the ignorant so sure of their ignorance that they’ll shout it from the rooftops as though it’s unassailable.
I grew up listening to Prairie Home Companion, and my dad still writes letters in his style occasionally. He was worth listening to maybe twenty years ago.
Now, Keillor’s a grumpy old man whose attempts at satire have lost their edge and become indistinguishable from general orneriness. He doesn’t appear to care. It’s well past time for him to retire.
Long ago I abolished that person from my universe. His blabbering narcissism and smugness just irritates the heck out of me.
However, christians love to see themselves as martyrs. Problem is, today people tend not to wear hair shirts, and most people just don’t care if their neighbor is christian or hare krishna. The only way they can get attention is to insist everybody else acknowledge their victimhood. Frequently, this soon takes the form of pointing to persons of other beliefs as the perpetrators of their victimization. I don’t believe Keillor is dumb enough to believe this, so his rant is even more egregious in that it is intentionally hurtful.
But then, narcissists are seldom known for their consideration for others.
I am deeply ashamed of this man.
I listened to his stories for years and even got his autograph on his book Me!
But something has happened to him. I can’t listen to his show anymore because it’s just pure spiritual this and that crap. I couldn’t stand his movie even though he ends up in the same seat I sit in whenever I eat at Mickey’s Diner.
This piece is just another in a long line of downward-spiraling crap. It’s too bad, really. He was a great in his time and it’s really sad to see his decline.
Well said.
This looks like a way to get your comment to him:
http://www.publicradio.org/applications/formbuilder/user/form_display.php?form_code=0512cbfda6df
That article by Mr Keillor was either very badly failed satire, or just naked tribal hate.
He was good value 20 years back and I often listened to his show, but he is now clearly past his prime. Waaaaaay past.
STFU, Garrison, and retire from public life.
Ahh, but lest you forget… the almighty dollar and the like…. GK shows demand great price, and he may attribute such, but in reality, such price gives few dividends. Ahhh, such is the life of a star ... does anyone get it or should I spell it out… in Keilor speak?
Keillor did retire. Then he came back. That was where he went wrong.
I used to love Guy Noir when I was a kid. Now I itch to change the channel when his theme music comes on, even when I know it’s just a station ad.
good post Chris. and glad to see I’m not alone (among your other commenters) in having grown up a faithful listener to PHC and now watching in a kind of disgusted disbelief as it circles the drain.
you could always just print the thing off and mail it. a few years back I sent in a letter basically imploring the man to quit singing on the show. some intern responded with a polite form letter thanking me for my interest and so on.
I read Keillor’s rant and went to Google to see if it was true. It is. I Googled to see if he is anti-Semitic. He is. I haven’t listened to Lake Woebegone in 20 years and just recently had found a local channel that carries it. Now it doesn’t matter because a egotistical Scrooge of a man who worships an ancient Jew, even while despising modern Jews has no place in my world. I like your letter. I hope you find a way to get it to him.
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