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November 28, 2007

Comments

Robert Powers

Y'know, it's kinda cheap of her to parrot Ayn Rand's ideas without giving the woman a lick of credit.

Also, dumb. Rand's philosophy has great germs of truth and wisdom but is inhuman in its rigidity and extremism.

John

Good point, Robert.

It's almost as if every one of Ms. Fischer's columns should include a preface revealing her incredible childhood trauma; frankly, I can't imagine something of that magnitude (and its aftermath) being anything less than a transformative experience that continues to shape her "Randian" world-view.

Josh Strupp

"I developed empathy for the pain of others...."

I'm not so sure about that one.

John

Note that there has been no published reader reaction to the column.

Sad.

John

My mistake - here's an letter to the editor that ran a couple days back -

Society's saints are the selfless

Community columnist Barbara Fischer wrote in the Nov. 28 Journal Sentinel that "Contrary to popular opinion, all healthy individuals are selfish" ("What's so wrong with being selfish?"). I think she ought to find a better word: Webster's defines selfish as excessively focused on oneself.

She blames government for being an enabler, saying the consequences of the Great Society created in the 1960s has "assisted in allowing up to three generations of Americans to know nothing other than welfare." Welfare was here decades before the 1960s.

She forgets that the Great Society also allowed millions of students to go to college who couldn't have gone otherwise, brought millions out of poverty, allowed millions more to become homeowners. For every failure, there is a success story. We have improved our civilization because we care to be our brother's keeper. We will always have people who can't or won't take care of themselves because of physical or mental illness.

Those who are truly selfless are the saints in this society - those who volunteer at food pantries, shelters, hospitals and give of their time to those who need a friend the most.

It is time for Fischer to get out of her ivory tower and come down to see what's going on in the real world.

Judith Tutkowski
New Berlin

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