Doug Berger – Page 15

September 26, 2015April 18, 2020

Sometimes You Have To Respond To Ignorance

created image of My version of Tim is on the Internet meme

Letters to the Editor of a local newspaper was one of our first ‘comment sections’ where regular readers could share their various viewpoints tempered with moderation by the newspaper staff. Today, even with prescreening, the letter section sometimes resembles the fact free fantasizes we find in places like FOX ‘news’, news websites and Facebook. Some friends think the ignorant comments should be ignored but I think one should respond to ignorance in some cases like I did to a recent letter to the editor about the US Supreme Court same-sex marriage ruling.

A gentleman had the following letter published in my local paper this past week:

September 19, 2015April 18, 2020

Toledo TV Stations Pimp Popepalooza In Philadelphia

Northwest Ohio has a large Catholic population and at least two of the Toledo TV stations fall over each other promoting the Church and their events. Most of the time it seems like they act like PR agencies rather than news reporters. Both stations plan extensive coverage of Pope Francis’ visit to Philadelphia. Those plans made me wonder who was paying for it.

Next week the Pope is visiting the US with time spent at the World Meeting of Families Congress in Philadelphia and WTOL and WTVG are planning on having full news crews traveling with Toledo area families going to the event. WTOL also had a 2 part sit-down interview with the Archbishop of Toledo and it was so fluffy my teeth hurt from the sugar.

September 7, 2015April 18, 2020

Everyone needs to do more to help the Syrian refugees

image showing large crowd of Syrian refugees walking through Hungary

Syrian refugees walk through Hungary

In recent weeks the number of refugees running from war in Syria has swelled. Most are headed to Europe even if some countries don’t want them. The conflict is partly be tied to climate change and a civil war assisted by nations like the US and France. Besides being the human thing to do, we all bear some responsibility to help the refugees.

The refugees from Syria are a major humanitarian crisis that is butting heads with old historical bias against outsiders. Countries are taking different approaches in dealing with the influx.

August 28, 2015April 18, 2020

No, Margaret Sanger Didn’t Want To Exterminate African-Americans

image of two Margaret Sanger quote memes that are wrong

Two out of context Margaret Sanger quotes that mislead readers

One tactic that forced birth conservatives use to argue against abortion is an old refuted argument that Margaret Sanger, one of the founders of Planned Parenthood, was a racist. They use a quote out of context from a 1930s letter she wrote advocating for birth control clinics for the African-American community in the South and a quote that intentionally puts a negative light on her support of the now discredited Eugenics movement. The goal of the memes isn’t to educate about Margaret Sanger but to smear her.

The two quotes I’ve seen posted on Facebook by conservative friends of mine can be seen in the image to the right of this post.

August 26, 2015April 18, 2020

A New Cover Means A Contest

New cover for Dancing in the Banana Factory

When I published my first collection of short stories back in 2013, I used an online tool to create the cover. It was provided by the company that prints the book and was limited in what could be done. I was never really happy with the cover. I recently hired someone better at Photoshop than I am and my book now has a new cover. In celebration I am having a contest.

I really need some reviews of my book on Amazon, Smashwords, iTunes, and Barnes & Knoble.