LETTER

Get a handle on Fred Ryan: letter-writer responds

 

I’m actually pleased that someone has taken me to task for taking Fred Ryan to task over his overwrought columns in the Bulletin. I only wish that Raisa Poretski’s letter to the editor had not been fraught with inaccuracies and bemusing attempts at insult. How and where did the letter err? Let me count the ways.

First, I did not “slight a respected person of the community,” I slighted his columns. There’s an important difference. Second, while my letter was certainly somewhat cheeky, it was most definitely civilized. Debate, critique and even parody have been hallmarks of civilization since the days of the Greeks! Third, vague and abstract writing does not automatically qualify as “reflections on the loftier plane,” and while Fred Ryan frequently shows a predilection for waxing philosophic, given that he is first and foremost a journalist, I rather doubt that he’d be comfortable being deemed an “intellectual.” Fourth, my letter-writing mode is a far cry from my “fist-fight mode.” And fifth, when things “don’t go my way” what I actually do is complain to my wife.

Tony Martins
Aylmer