Editor’s note: This is in response to the column “Tall tales tell us something terrible about our nation,” published in Thursday’s Daily Lobo. In the column, Jason Stafford uses tall-tale characters to create a satire of the American dream.
Mr. Stafford,
I appreciated your elucidating lecture on American folktales in the Thursday edition of the Daily Lobo. Your insight into the way these tall tales shaped the country of today was eye-opening, to say the least. I especially enjoyed your explanation of my recurring dream; you know, the one in which I’m “floating down a river, drinking cheap liquor and shooting randomly at anything that moves.”
It’s reassuring to know that this is the “echoed vision of America.” Here I thought I was a monster for having such dreams.
And if I thought that was bad, I felt even worse for wanting to punch Johnny Appleseed every time I thought about his story.
Needless to say, your generalizations of American history, opinion and current state of affairs were completely off base. Sure you’re entitled to your opinion, that is one of the great things about this country, but please do us all a favor and don’t try to pass this off as the “story of America.” To clarify for your benefit in the future, these are stories of or from America. It may do you some good to go by Thoreau’s advice and not “stretch the seams in putting on the coat,” because you, sir, stretched the seams to the point of breaking with this column.
Leonard Perez
UNM staff
