Open Letter to Jeff Fairchild

Who is Jeff Fairchild?  I am not sure actually.  It is the screen-name of a gentleman who offered an opinion to the world via a comments function on Foxnews.com. His post was in response to a very sarcastic and snarky opinion about the Vice Presidential debate last night by a blogger named Bob Beckel.  I am glad to say I have never heard of this Beckel person before today.   I am sorry to say that I have now read something Mr. Beckel wrote.

How did I end up on Foxnews.com?  When something in the world happens, that I would like a balanced understanding of, I try to read a journalistic report from many different sources.  This morning I read articles on Boston.com, Bostonherald.com, Foxnews.com, NYTimes.com, and CNN.com.  I wanted to see what the amplitude of the swinging political pendulum was regarding the debates.  I had used Google news to help direct me to articles of interest and unfortunately I was linked to Mr. Beckels diatribe blog.  

I will abstain from going into why I have a problem with Mr. Beckel’s offering   Just know that I will try my best to not follow his example of how to express opinions on ones blog.  

How did I come to read Jeff Fairchild’s comment?  Sigh … I don’t know.  I could insert a screed of text here about how I am realizing to what depths I despise the comments function attached to legitimate journalistic offerings on the Internet, but that diverts me away from my discussion with Jeff.  Lets just say that I am fine with non-journalists like Jeff Fairchild (assumption of course) and myself (evident I am sure) commenting on blog posts which are clearly written to throw chum in the waters.  Sadly Jeff got sucked in, but in a way, I am glad because Jeff is someone I really want to understand better.  If you have to subject yourself to this shameless flamebait (its simply HAS to be) feel free to visit   http /foxforum.blogs.foxnews.com/2008/10/02/bbeckel_1003/comment-page-3/#comments

Lets get to it.  Mr. Fairchild, if you are really out there, I have some questions for you.  Not because I want to refute anything you have to say, but because I truly want to understand your point of view better.  So, if you just happen to Google your name and you happen to click on this letter, please feel free to respond to me.  I look forward to it.  

For the sake of context, here is the full text of Mr. Fairchild’s comment. 

Comment by Jeff Fairchild


October 3rd, 2008 at 10:21 am


You know, it is a sad state of affairs when we allow the elites to talk down to us and we say that they are the best because they are “professionals” and people who speak in a simple language are somehow not as intelligent. It was the elites and profession politicians and Wall Street people that have got us in this mess. I think it is time for some down home people to take over. Isn’t that they way our country was founded in the first place? At one time politicians did not get paid for service and included the common man. I think it is time for common folks like Palin to lead. You do not have to know all of the issues to run for any office. That is why people in leadership have teams of advisors. Why do we forget this? I am ready for a real change. I hope that the average person sees through all of this down talking and elitism of people like Bush, Obama, Reid, Pelosi, Frank, Dodd and their ilk. I am tired of being talked down to like I do not know what is going on. We need some common sense people like Palin.
Sorry Bob.

Jeff, my questions are as follows:

• Can you clarify your definition of elite?  I know what the Oxford English Dictionary says it means.   I know what it means, in practical terms for myself.  For example: I am a basketball player, I would have liked to play at the college level since I was a starter in high school averaging about 14 points per game, but the players who made my college team were playing at a different level.  In my world I would have called them elite in comparison to me.  I would call my wife elite in comparison to me as well as she has certain skills that far outreach my own. For instance she can write circles around me.  My mentor I see as being elite and, damn, what would I have done without him?  What does this word mean in your life?
• I would agree that people who speak “in a simple language” are not less intelligent or less educated, but would you agree that if you were less intelligent, the only option you have is to speak “in a simple language”?  This is bordering on augmentative, but I must know where your values lie on this one.
• Is it your assertion that having specialized skills in certain arenas like, investments, or governing, makes you LESS able to do those jobs?  I would not argue that bad people do bad things at any level of any discipline.  Shame on them if they are greedy or corrupt.  You and I can stand shoulder to shoulder and fight that cause together as long as we agree on who is causing the problems.
• Can you define “down home” for me?  I know you don’t know how I live or what I do, but could I call myself down home?  I mean, I live in my condo, with my wife, in a city and I use public transportation.  Am I out of the club?  Where is the line?  Might you mean down to earth?  Because that is something I can agree with you on.  We NEED people who are leaders to understand their place in the big picture.  Yes sir, I really want to elect people who are aware of all the big scary shit that I cannot deal with on a day to day basis.  Maybe its just semantics, can you clarify?
• Jeff, are you suggesting that we return to an 18th century form of government when our country’s population was 2.5 million (which is the population of Kansas by the way)?  Or are you suggesting that we rebel against the government like the colonists did?  Or maybe you mean to say that our founding fathers (no mothers or brothers were represented in that number if you noticed) were in no way compromised from rich business suit types, or academics?  The fact that you wrote “ I think it is time for some down home people to take over. Isn’t that they way our country was founded in the first place?“, and ended the phrase with a question mark makes me believe that you are not sure about how the founding of our government happened, and who participated in it.  I’m not either.  We could all use a refresher course on how our country began governing itself.  I, for one, think that our country of 301,139,947 people and a Gross National Product of 10 trillion dollars must inherently be governed differently than Thomas Jefferson did in 1776.  Can I point out that Thomas Jefferson was one very rich, very French speaking, artsy fartsy academic.  Damn, I even think that guy was a snob.
• Since I am lazy, I will take your word that in early American History, the politicians did not get paid.  This does not sound quite right, and given that  I have not researched this, I am sure they must have been involved in other ways of putting food on the table.  You know, to survive.  I think paying people for their work is the right thing to do.  It generally keeps them from having huge conflicts of interest, or simply starving to death.
• Again you speak the truth Jeff.  You do not HAVE to know all the issues to run for office.   But, shouldn’t you?  Who are these advisers?  People who have specialized expertise in certain skill sets?  Are these advisers elite?  If you follow the advice of the elite are you still “down home”?  

That is it Jeff.  Those are my questions.  Again, I really want to enter into a real honest discussion on these points.  I know at times I may have come off a bit quippy, but believe that I mean no disrespect.  I would be more than willing to hear your honest opinions about all of the above, and more.  In the end Jeff, I want real change too.  I want things to be better.  I want to not have to worry about job loss, or war, or who is stealing the money we earn.  I want to go to my job, do interesting if not meaningful work, go home to my wife, ask her about her day, finish off the day doing something peaceful and life affirming, go to bed and then get up and do it again.  I think if we can understand each other better, we can find that person who can lead our country to a place where you and I can just … be.  Just like what those folks wanted when they founded our country.  Here is a place where we can talk it over and gain some perspective.  I can’t wait to hear from you.