I read with moderate amusement Matt Labash's snarky sendup of the
Shadow Convention. Alas, it would appear that Labash is a poster
child for the self-involved boomer movement. He ends his piece with
the lines: "A seed was planted, a dialogue started. Never mind if
it's a dialogue many of us gave up on long ago - when we left our dorm
rooms, bad weed, and jug wine behind."

Maybe that wasn't such a good thing, considering the way things have
turned out since Labash "grew up." We have more of our citizens in
jail than most other countries in the world. Our crime rate is
multiples of the rates in other industrialized countries. We spend
vast amounts of taxpayer money on incarcerating users of politically
incorrect drugs. Worst of all, the Constitution is in an advanced
state of decay, eaten away by the necessities of the drug war.

If I had to guess, I'd say the reason Labash didn't see more
significance in the Shadow Convention was that he was too busy
agonizing over the terrible injustice of Al Franken's fame and Matt
Labash's obscurity.

RAY ALDRIDGE
Ft. Walton Beach, FL