The Stranger

A mutual friend was talking with my sister, who told him that I had seen Dan Savage in Victrola.

"She reads The Stranger? Don't they hate where she works?" - friend
"I don't know. I think she reads it sometimes." - sister
"Well, isn't it against everything she stands for morally?" - friend
"If it is, shouldn't you be against it, too?" - sister

I find it interesting that some of my friends, like the one quoted above, imbibe that Stranger mindset uncritically, never questioning a culture that eschews respect and thoughtfulness (and, dare I say it, morality) in favor of snarky cynicism.

Ah, The Stranger. It's so very vehement, so entertainingly strident sometimes. Truthfully, I don't read it for entertainment (it hasn't been as funny as usual lately, and the sort of things they laugh at make me sad more than anything) as much as having a general awareness of who my neighbors are and what's going on in our neighborhood. It's a completely different mindset, one that's good to understand and appreciate in order to combat and, perhaps, in more reasonable moments, persuade. Somehow, I doubt most of the people writing in the Stranger take this same approach with anything I've written... but maybe that's for the better.