Letters: Commentary writer should mind his own business

EDITOR,
After reading Steve Bailey’s Opinion piece in your Jan. 29 issue (“Some New Year’s resolutions — for others”), I have a couple more suggestions for New Year’s resolutions for him.
1. Mind your own business. Who cares if your neighbors leave their Christmas lights up for a while? Maybe they would like a little bright light to cheer them up in these dreary times.
2. Stop ranting and raving against whole groups of people, as if they were all the same. This is a symptom of a lazy mind. A couple of months ago, it was your nasty insinuations against the police. (Did you ever apologize for that? If so, I didn’t see it in the newspaper.) Now it’s county supervisors, state and federal legislators, presidential cabinet members, etc. Lots of us are feeling scared, edgy and disappointed about the economic mess we are in.
Our leaders haven’t solved our problems, this is true. But surely it is not true that all of them are the same — all petulant, all childish, all in bed with special interests, all stooges, etc. — as you seem to be claiming. Some of them are surely smart and honest people, doing their best. Your opinion piece is woefully short on specifics; your writing would be more convincing if you showed that you were capable of distinguishing one public leader from another, one piece of legislation from another, etc.
3. Stop trying to make jokes. I assume “stop beating the dog” was meant to be amusing. We are not amused.