Fan Mail!

Imagine my surprise when I checked my email this afternoon and saw that I received a comment on a post that I wrote almost a year ago. That's fine, I know how it probably goes: someone is Googling a subject, my blog post pops up in the search, the person reads my post, and if they feel strongly enough about it, they take the time to comment. I am assuming that is how Luis found my post on the phenomenon of the ubiquitous Mac Dre t-shirts that blanketed my middle school campus at this time last year (the fad seems to have since diminished). As you will see in his comment, Luis was not happy about my harsh words directed toward the late Mr. Dre. Read now, the eloquent prose of a proud member of the hip-hop generation:

Yeah, you suck this is one of the worst persuasive papers I've read in my life. The fact that you slander one of California's best rappers-right next to Tupac-is fucking outrageous. and it's kind of weird how you failed to mention all the good Mr. Hicks did by opening up rec centers to keep teens off the streets, and cleaning up gang related graffiti. So, yeah, you suck.

Thank you Luis; coming from you, I will take your remarks directed toward me as a compliment. Let's visit a few of your choice comments shall we?

I was not aware I was writing a persuasive paper. Luis must have learned that term yesterday in his sophomore language arts class; keep impressing us with the big words, Luis. California has a "best rapper"? I thought they were all the worst. Rap pretty much lost me after about 1989 or 1990 when happy party rap of Young M.C. and Tone Loc went by the wayside. Besides, what do you mean by "best rapper" anyway? Are you talking about their so-called musical ability? I wasn't. I am speaking of the penchant of these thugs to fill the minds of our youth with violent, mysoginistic, racist lyrics and images of a most vile nature. I don't give a crap about how good they are at keeping a beat, I care what they are doing to my country and my society. Case in point are Mac Dre and your other hero Tupac Shakur. I already mentioned in the post-in- question about Mac Dre's previous career as a bank robber. Then Luis, you go and forget to mention that Tupac comes from a family of murderers, cop killers, and robbers, and was himself arrested, tried, and convicted of sexually assaulting a 19 year old girl. He was also supposed to be in the movie Menace II Society, but was replaced after he assaulted the movie's directors (the Hughes Brothers). He also paid out about $500,000 in a wrongful death lawsuit that resulted from the killing of a six year old child who took a stray bullet from one of the thugs in Tupac's entourage during a shootout with rival gangsta rappers. Way to be an upstanding role model, Tupac! The tragedy is that so many students that I teach eat this "gangsta" stuff up and want to be just like Mac Dre and Tupac. The "thug life" did wonders for those two "artists": both ended up shot to death.

Now back to Mac Dre. Luis took me to task for not mentioning all the good things that Mac Dre did, like opening up rec centers and cleaning up graffiti. Wow! What a saint Dre was. Hey Luis, did you know Adolf Hitler loved animals? Did you know that John Wayne Gacy, the Illinois serial killer who strangled 33 young men, was a party clown who enriched the lives of countless children? It's easy to fall under the spell of the goodness of evil people, Luis. I remember when Washington state Senator Patty Murray commended Osama bin Laden for being, "Out in these countries for decades, building schools, building roads, building infrastructure, building day care facilities, building health care facilities, and the people are extremely grateful." Yeah, forget the fact that Osama masterminded the African embassy bombings, the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole, and September 11 attacks; he built schools and roads! Forget that Mac Dre robbed banks, glorified defiance of proper authority and good order, and even in death, continues to lead our youth astray by making the "thug life" look glamorous; he built rec centers and cleaned up graffiti.

Thank you for commenting on my blog, Luis, but you really need to stop listening to that hip-hop crap and start finding some more constructive role models... yours suck!

Good Day to You, Luis