Please help me with a letter to the editor

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Our local alternative paper, The Octopus, has become increasingly and, to me, alarmingly kookified over the years. This week the cover story is on “The Power to Heal” and the cover image features the standard kirlian image of a fingerprint, showing the body’s natural healing aura or some such jazz.

You can read the article for yourself online here:

http://www.cuoctopus.com/web_pages/cu_coverstory.html

Maybe I’m overreacting, but these stories bother me, especially since this one seems to simply take it for granted that all this foolishness is true and that the medical profession is simply too scared to allow it in.

So I want to write in a letter to the editor. I could rant for pages, but I don’t want a rant, I’m looking for good, factual information to criticize this article in an informed way. So what I’m looking for is:

  • first off, your take on the article. Is it more balanced than my biased mind realizes? Am I overreacting?

  • some factual links to holistic healing. Namely, I want to make the claim that this stuff simply doesn’t have any kind of data to back up that it works other than the usual “Well, my sister’s boyfriend’s mom said that…”

  • Any other information you might think is helpful.

Please note that I am NOT asking people to write in and complain. I don’t believe in calling a bunch of other people to your cause and saying, “Hey, come look at this and then be pissed off!” All I’m trying to do is enlist help so that my letter is more reasoned and factual and less ranty.

Thanks for your help!

2

The only advice I can offer off the cuff is to make sure you end your letter with, “I bet you won’t even have the guts to print this.”

3

I would point out that none of the sources “cited” by this article have any standing whatsoever in the credible scientific community and that the human body model with the seven colored dots does not attempt to show where, scientifically, these healing center places are. Also, from what I have learned of massage therapy (kooky aunt; don’t ask), there are also “centers” in the legs and arms, so you might want to point out that one person’s say-so on this matter doesn’t mean shit.

I wouldn’t say that article had balance if you put Balance in it.

That holistic shit seems to me to be about as scientific as cosmotology.

4

Sniff…no one’s interested? I’m trying to fight some ignorance!

5

Why don’t you write the letter? Then we can rip it to shreds! :slight_smile:

6

If you don’t want to give facts to the clueless or converted, I’d suggest you us the Automatic Complaint Letter Generator. Just give it some names and it creates a completely non-sensical but still logical sounding letter.

I’ve done at least two to my local paper. It’s fun to watch the converted write back to argue with me.