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When I started this column, I never thought I'd get so many letters! I wish I could answer each of you personally, but when you get 30 new messages each time you turn on the computer, it's impossible. Most of the letters I get are from really interesting and cool people, but some of them definitely freak me out. I've received a lot of letters from 45-year-old men, complimenting me on what a great writer I am. After my last column, I also started getting lots of letters from people ranting and raving about how the Second Amendment means that everyone should be armed all the time. I was going to ask the old men why they're spending so much time online writing to 16-year-old girls, and I was going to respond to the gun nuts, declining their offers of protection, but then I just figured, whatever. Why encourage these people?
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By
Tyler Valdez
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Thanks for writing, everybody. I'm going on vacation with my parents tomorrow, so when I get back, I'll tell you all about our trip.
Farah R writes:
Hi Tyler! It is cool that you are in charge of this section... anyway... i'd like to say something about all the teens' parents. Well, parents today don't think that their teen children today are responsible and they always think we make a lot of mistakes by doing bad stuff. Anyway, it's not true! When you try to help your parents, they find you a nuisance and when you don't help, they say that you're lazy! And when they make a mistake, they'll never ever admit that they're wrong (some parents do so but rarely). And when we do a little wrong, they start nagging at us and even grounding us! Well, i don't think that this is fair! We are also human beings just like them! Anyway you know what i mean... so thanx for reading this... hope it will be in your crib! Well, won't that be cool! Thanx again Tyler! Bye! :O)
Tyler replies:
Farah, word is born. Or, as my parents would say, right on sister! I think that if you listen closely to what your parents are saying when they're nagging you and telling you you messed up, as though they had never made any mistakes themselves, you'll find that what they're really doing is admitting their own guilt. Your parents, like everyone else, have made lots of mistakes in their lives. In fact, they've made many more mistakes than you have, and as long as they live they'll always be ahead of you in the mistakes department. Maybe if you keep this in mind when they're bugging you, you'll be able to tune them out better.
PS: Is that emoticon you're using the universal symbol for a person who needs a nose job? ;)
Sadee Whip writes:
Hey tyler. My name is Sadee. I'm probably way older than most of the people who respond to your page but... I just wanted to send some thoughts your way about the writing thing. Life-jacket, bouquet, tree, guts, mind-mist, spit, hail, storm, salvation, damnation, liberation — writing is all of this and more. Writing has gotten me through the toughest times in my life. There's this exercise called freewriting — don't know if you've heard of it — you set a goal of, say, 20 minutes. The only rule is that you can't stop writing. Don't edit, erase, etc. Just keep your pen going. This is such a great way to get really juicy bits of your soul onto paper. I've done this so much that almost all of my writing comes out this way. Anyway, hope your page is a big success and that your writing career soars.
Tyler replies:
Sadee, you are so right. Writing to me is not just life-jacket and liberation, but also Glock 9mm and Goya beans. Hey! This freewriting really works!
Reka writes:
You have a wonderful idea about writing for the internet. It is true that people today are more concerned with how someone looks or dresses or past mistakes they've made? (hey, people change! Is that a sin?) I can't wait to read your upcoming columns. I'm editor-in-chief of my school newspaper, but people usually don't take my editorials seriously because I'm 5'3", blonde, and I like to go to parties! Keep up the excellent work.
P.S. 'mad' was slang in Austin Powers' time, wasn't it?
Tyler replies:
Reka, you sound great. Like so many of the people who write to me, I wish we could get together and hang. Good luck with your paper, and I hope you pursue journalism in college, too. Incidentally, when you say "mad" was slang in Austin Powers' time, do you mean a couple of years ago when the movie came out, or in the mid-'60s when Austin got frozen, or do you just mean "old" in general?
TomasX writes:
People who carry weapons are cowards. They don't have the guts to fight like a man and they don't have the brains to discuss matters like an adult. Since our society has removed accountability from teens and children schools have become mad-houses. Isn't it interesting that for hundreds of generations parents have beatened their children for doing wrong, now that it is illegal look at the results.
Tyler replies:
Wow, Tomas, pretty harsh! So, your point is that we need to give back teenagers accountability, and "beaten" them, too? Cool! By the way, just exactly what does it mean to "fight like a man"?
Gary writes:
I joined this Tripod thing inadvertently... I'm reasonably new to this Net idea and I'm not sure how I did it but I keep getting these Tripod newsletters!
I've just read your bit about guns at school — your experiment provided a number of interesting insights. The main one was the question you asked, i.e. what is the difference between a kid who brings a gun into school and uses it and one who brings one in and realises it's a rather silly thing to do...
Here in England we don't get many shootings (other than the IRA et al) but we have had some mass murders committed with firearms.It's horrifying and has lead to the banning of certain types of handgun here (all of which were only available to licenced members of gun-clubs).
I think the solution to the problem in the USA is rather simple (unless, of course, I'm being simplistic myself — a distinct possibility!)Since (in my opinion) there is absolutely no chance of these weapons being made illegal in the way they are in England the govt should go the complete other way and make the bearing of arms mandatory for all adults. This way, the kids with the guns could have been shot by a nearby adult — a teacher, in the case of the school shootings.
In general, I think it would concentrate the minds wonderfully of anyone planning on an armed robbery of any kind; if every customer in the bank I'm about to rob is armed to the teeth — and likely to shoot me on my way out — I may think again.
Tyler replies:
You "inadvertantly" became a Tripod member? You'd better start being accountable for your actions, Gary, or I'm going to have to "beaten" you down. So you think that everyone here in the former British colonies should be packing heat, do you? I wonder that means for English tourists. Do we give you guns as soon as you get off the plane at Disney World? Or does the fact that we'd all be armed mean that you'd have a police escort of total strangers protecting you at all times?
Meg writes:
I think your second column really hit home with me. Last night i was at a graduation party and my mom and i were talking to a lady and her daughter. My mom mentioned that i am taking 2 business classes next year, everyone was like, "Wow, you're so lucky, programmers are in demand right now. You'll be snatched up even quicker because you're a girl." I guess they were assuming that just because i'm taking 2 computer programming classes, that i'll grow up to be a computer programmer. Well, i'm not. I hate computer programming and i just took the course because it's the easiest computer class and my mom was gonna make me take one anyway. Should they maybe assume that because i'm taking French or Global, that I'll teach social studies or become a french translator? Am i the only one this has happened to? Because i feel like my mom's already got my life planned out for me before my sophomore year even starts, and that's a scary thought.
Tyler replies:
I know exactly what you mean, Meg. Parents seem to be afraid of an unlabelled future-adult. So if you even pick up a piece of trash in front of your house, all of a sudden you're "My daughter the environmentalist." If you take a typing class in school, you're on your way to writing for USA Today, and if you offer to pump gas for your dad you're some kind of mechanical genius. Anyone over the age of 30 is afraid of the future; you have to remember that all times.
Emily (the Free-Roving Agent of Chaos) writes:
I am a fellow tripod teen, though I don't have my own column. I just read your column on guns at school, and I was impressed by it. I also read the first article you wrote, but none others because I am a lazy bum. I enjoy your writing style and quality, it keeps me interested without being too wordy and it actually seems to say something without overloading a person. Keep up the good work.
"You gotta move fast to beat the devil, your arm's too short to box with God .." — CPD
"If your mind can't add it up, just follow your heart. If it still doesn't make any sense, you might have more at stake than you know. Hang tough, hold tight, the ride's not over yet." — MU330
"A billion here, a billion there — sooner or later it adds up to real money." — Everett Dirksen
Tyler responds:
I've always wanted to meet a Free-Roving Agent of Chaos, Emily, thanks for writing! I'm sure you're not lazy, don't be so hard on yourself. If you read my last column, you'll know that I can't even hold down a job for more than a week. Thanks for being so complimentary about my writing, too, that's exactly the style I've been aiming for. Thanks for the quotes, too. Speaking of laziness, here's a personal favorite of mine, by Dr. Samuel Johnson: "We would all be idle, if we could."
That's it, everybody, I'm Audi 2000! See you in a couple of weeks.
Tyler V.
Tyler Valdez is hype, yo. This is the fifth issue of her Mad Crib. Catch up on what you missed in Tyler's archive.
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