Post to the Host

Comments from the week of 06.13.22

Hi, Garrison.

I notice that you are getting more and more letters from people offended by your tendency of kindness and common sense on the gun issue. Good for you for publishing their crazy talk. Those people really think they need their guns. This despite FBI state-by-state stats that demonstrate that a gun brought into the home for self-defense is 20 times more likely to be used in a suicide, homicide, or accidental shooting (think children).

But to my point, the comedian Jim Jefferies, in his excellent 15-minute rebuttal to every gun-owning argument there is, is credited with my favorite argument about guns to repel government invasion of their homes. Said Jefferies: “You do know you’re bringing a gun to a drone fight, right?”

Anyway, I’ve finally learned that evidence is of little use against people who rely on memes and disinformation to inform their opinions. It’s probably time to stop giving them airtime in your column because it will never end. When I get discouraged about right-wing politics, I reach for one of your books; my mood and outlook improve a bit.

Best,

John W Mitchell

Western Slope, Colorado

John, you are carrying the once-scorned name of John Mitchell onto the sunlit slopes of higher reason and I congratulate you, and I hope that the former Attorney General, wherever he may be, is feeling some gratitude too.

GK

I have no inclination to EVER go to Texas and I often wish that we had let the South secede and saved all those lives lost in our bloody Civil War.

I walked with friends in our local March for Our Lives, and I am somewhat cheered by the possibility of a bill to address the Gun Issue.

More money — lots more — will be required to address the Mental Health Issue — let’s see if the people (R’s) pushing that narrative will vote for the appropriate funding.

A still-hopeful (why??) Dem Warrior Woman in PA,

Carole Kenney

We’re hopeful, Carole, because we see the beauty of this world. I see the beauty of a younger generation that is so much less conscious of race, ethnicity, and religious identity — and makes friends easily across these lines. There is so much delight in this world, we need to stand up and defend it.

GK

I saw you perform at the Bankhead two nights ago, and your performance style was magical … filled with wisdom, my kind of humor, and wonderful stories because you give lots of visual details AND YET you are not boring. The singing during the break nourished my soul.

Best,

Kathy Sharpe Cannon 

There are people who’d argue with the “not boring” but probably they don’t read Post To The Host. My soul was nourished by the singing that night. I especially love getting my liberals to sing the national anthem and getting unbelievers to sing “How Great Thou Art,” people who wouldn’t set foot in a church even to use the toilet and here they are singing “O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder consider all the works Thy hands have made.” It’s inspiring, the music just lifts them up like a wave and they sail through it.

GK

I was ABSOLUTELY THRILLED to read in your column of 6/22 the correct name of my church denomination. I am a very happy Unitarian Universalist and thank you for updating your previous usages of only part of our name. I know denominations merging is unusual but happily we found that we had more things in common than not.

Trudy Brown

I did that for you, Trudy, but don’t expect me to make a regular practice of spending all those syllables on UUs. There are Pentecostal denominations with great long catalog names and I’ll be darned if I’m going to quote the whole marquee. Apostolic Holiness Full-Bible Pentecostal Church of our Lord Jesus Christ — I’m sorry, they’re just Pentecostals to me.

GK

Dear Mr. Keillor,

This week my husband and I attended your show in Bend, Oregon. Oh, what a show; tears, giggles, laughter, singing and singing — it was all so perfect.

We’ve been together for 38 years and both feel that we’ve grown up with you. The memories that flooded back to us — rushing home from church on Sundays to listen to you on the radio while I made lunch, shhh’ing our daughter “Prairie Home’s is on the radio!!” (BTW she is a follower too :-)

Thank you, my dear man, for consistently bringing perspective into the world for us and knowing that there’s someone out there that shares our commonalities.

With love, 

Sandi, Randy & Heidi Hess

It was good to be in Bend with Robin and Linda Williams and I was only sorry that our friend Kate MacKenzie was prevented by family emergency from attending. She and we three once formed the Hopeful Gospel Quartet, the only gospel quartet in all of public radio, and we missed her voice singing “Turn Your Radio On” and “You’ve Been A Friend To Me” and other songs rarely heard on public radio (“Come and as you tread life’s journey, take Jesus as your daily guide”), which we sang because we grew up with the music and still love it. Bend was a lovely crowd and they bore up well under the show.

GK

I read your memoir, That Time of Year, and all throughout, and since we’re near the same age I knew so much of what you wrote. From Dr. Mork (I knew his son, also a Dr. Mork, and gave him golf lessons), to the Fitzgerald and having sung from the stage (how you ever got up/down that spiral staircase I’ll never understand), to the funeral homes, hospitals, medical procedures we’ve both had, and even John Berryman. Our paths have crossed so many, many times yet neither of us knew it — I certainly didn’t, anyway. The shows from the Sculpture Garden and other outdoor venues were classic — I taped most of the PHC shows going all the way back to 1974 — I still have those old tapes and still find them quite enjoyable to re-witness. That was “real” radio, not the stuff that’s out there now. And you actually said, “Nothing you ever do for a child is ever wasted or forgotten” but your reflection on it in That Time of Year was close enough … 

Thanks for the Memories.
Dave Haberle

You seem to have been following me, sir, and I hope you learned something from my mistakes. I note that you don’t mention having sat through long Sunday afternoon Bible readings in a Plymouth Brethren assembly, and believe me, you missed out on a great deal right there. And I had about twenty-three years of marital and romantic misery, which I hope you escaped too. But do look up John Berryman’s “Eleven Addresses to the Lord” — where he writes:

Master of beauty, craftsman of the snowflake,
inimitable contriver,
endower of Earth so gorgeous & different from the boring Moon,
thank you for such as it is my gift.

Mr. Keillor,

I unexpectedly met you in the San Jose airport the other day, and I wanted to say thank you for handling the interaction with grace and understanding. I am still getting a chuckle from your comments related to the oddity of the Stanley Cup/hockey being played in the summer. I wish you the best and hope you have a pleasant rest of your summer.

Respectfully,
Aaron Dellinger

It was fun to run into you, Aaron, so thanks for saying Hi. I used to be a college hockey fan and now for some reason I enjoy watching girls’ high school hockey, maybe because it reminds me of the fun of playing on a frozen rink on a lake, no boards, just snowbanks, and the feeling of grace one felt on skates at the age of seventeen. The pro players don’t seem to me to be enjoying the game. It looks grim to me, whereas big league ballplayers (some of them) seem to be having a great time out there. I lost interest in football a long time ago. So running into a pro hockey fan in San Jose was a big experience. Had I gotten your last name then, I might’ve asked if you’re related to the old left-wing antiwar activist Dave Dellinger, and now I’ll never know.

GK

As Ralph Waldo Emerson is one of Garrison’s heroes, I agree Washington, D.C., should be renamed Emerson. Please let him know that in March I published what I think is the first “popular culture” work dealing with R.W. Emerson, a new modern novel titled “Thank You, Mr. Emerson,” which he can find on Amazon. Above all it’s fresh and has humor and is about stuff. As an actor and screenwriter kicking around La-La Land for more decades than I like to think of, the 11 years off and on it took to write the Emerson book was a form of bliss when compared to what many refer to as the Hollywood Wars, re mixing it up in the movies & TV, auditioning for parts and writing and moving screenplays, etc., etc. But of course as any novelist knows, it ain’t no picnic and is a war of its own.

All the best to Mr. Keillor and hats off too.

Stay well,

Gerald Berns

A Hollywood actor named Berns
Took a break to pursue deep concerns
In a book about Em-
Erson’s take on them
But it does take some humorous turns.

GK