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Chris Crutcher


Last Updated: 7/2/2009

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Gender: Male
Status: Single
Age: 63
Sign: Cancer

City: SPOKANE
State: Washington
Country: US
Signup Date: 3/23/2007

Who Gives Kudos:

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•·.·joanna·.. (2)
Readingjunky (2)
BookWoman (2)
Beth Fehlbaum (2)
Joe Reilly (2)
Thursday, October 16, 2008 

Category: News and Politics

Conversations of a Deranged Old Man: In Five Rounds

Why the BIG OLD OBAMA BUTTON on the homepage?  Read on… 

ROUND ONE 

From: Heidy
To: Stotan717
Sent: 10/14/2008 9:31:08 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time
Subj: re: info hello,

I just read a great article about you and your books in our local paper (Knoxville News Sentinel). It peaked my interest enough to google you and find your website. ( I have a 12 year old son and a 14 year old daughter)
I didn't read any further than the first line.
Please do not tell me, or anyone else for that matter, who to vote for. Everyone needs to make their own decision, for their own reasons.  No one should vote for a candidate just because someone tells them to. This is important for everyone, but especially the young adults who are voting for the very first time.
I went on your web site to get informatin about your books, not discover your political opinion.
respectfully,
heidy cusick 

From: Stotan717
To: Heidy
Sent: 10/14/2008 3:31:10 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time
Subj: Re: info 

Heidy, Last time I looked we lived in a free country where freedom of expression is not only allowed, but encouraged.  Vote for Obama! isn't a demand; it's an advertisement.  It states who I want a majority of people to vote for.  I even have one on my lawn.  And guess what.  Not one of my neighbors, who are almost all McCain supporters, told me not to tell them who to vote for.  I guess they were comfortable knowing they could make up their own minds.  Why do I have the feeling that if I'd had the right name up there, you wouldn't have said a word?  I'm sorry to hear (or read) that instead of swallowing the fact that I have a political opinion and reading on to discover whatever it was you were interested in from reading the newspaper article, you jumped off the site.  But that's part of YOUR first amendment rights and I applaud you for exercising them.    Chris Crutcher  

ROUND ONE PS 

From: Stotan717
To: Heidy
Sent: 10/14/2008 4:10:44 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time
Subj: Re: info

AND I'm assuming you're aware the voting age in the United States is 18, so if a young person, say 12 or 14, were to fall under the mesmerizing effect of my half-inch high Vote For Obama, they couldn't actually do it. 

ROUND TWO

In a message dated 10/15/2008 4:39:16 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, Heidy writes:

I am a Obama supporter, but not one of you or your books and will spread the word... 

From: Stotan717
To: Heidy
Sent: 10/15/2008 7:52:14 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time
Subj: Re: info 

Feel free.  You haven't read my books, so you don't know that.  You are just one more angry person that wants things your way.  I hope you get them.  CC 

ROUND THREE 

In a message dated 10/15/2008 4:40:40 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, Heidy writes: 

AND you are a complete idiot....
I am on a crusade to spread the word about your rudeness and disrespect.
I certainly DO NOT want someone like you around my 12 and 14 year old. 

From: Stotan717
To: Heidy
Sent: 10/15/2008 7:55:58 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time
Subj: Re: info 

My rudeness and disrespect is only in response to yours.  What an arrogant and self-centered thing to do: visit my web site and tell me what YOU think should or shouldn't be on it.  All you had to do was read click off.  I happen to believe in the American voting system, and the right of every person to say what they believe in.  Any person can go on there and simply say they don't agree.  Go back and read your original letter and then come back and tell me how disrespectful I am.  CC 

ROUND FOUR 

From: Heidy
To:Stotan717
Sent: 10/15/2008 9:58:44 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time
Subj: Re: info 

I went on your web site to learn about your books. You posting your political opinion is using BAD JUDGEMENT and UNPROFESSIONAL. That's what your yard sign is for. I don't go listen to a singer I enjoy because of their singing and expect to hear their political views. I DON'T CARE. That is not why I would be there and that is not why I visited your site.
I was not disrespectful in my original email, however you sound like a deranged old man in all of yours. Getting extremely defensive, why so sensitive Chris?  You sound as if you have a screw lose...go medicate.
BOTTOM LINE: whom ever you are behind, it should not be advertised on your web site for your books. I AM RIGHT - YOU ARE WRONG.
please DO NOT contact me again, I have better things to do than "talk" to an idiot as you.

oh, and about Obama, I lied. 

From: Stotan717
To: Heidy
Sent: 10/15/2008 11:28:22 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time
Subj: Re: info

Believe me, I knew when you said it that you were lying about Obama.  And it probably wouldn't be a good idea for you to go to my web site again because I have published our correspondence word for word.  I want to make sure that people know what a deranged old man I am and how RIGHT you are and how WRONG I am.  It's MY web site, you idiot.  And you also lied about why you went there in the first place.  Chris Crutcher 

ROUND FIVE  

In a message dated 10/15/2008 11:46:24 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, Heidy writes:

YOU just don't get it. My kids love to read and I am always looking for new books/authors for them to experience. THAT IS WHY I went to your web site. I have not said one word your political views. They are yours, I just don't care to know them, I wanted to know about your BOOKS.
and I don't have a sign in my yard. Just grass, tree's flowers and kids playing...
Not certain who I will vote for yet, there is not one good candidate, but I must choose , because it is the American way...and my right and my duty. 

From: Stotan717
To:Heidy 
Sent: 10/15/2008 11:54:03 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time
Subj: Re: info If you wanted to know about my books you would have gone to look at my books.  I've read enough of your ranting to know you aren't going to be intimidated by the word Obama if you really wanted to know about my books.  But it's a lot of fun watching you try to make a case for something you can't make a case for.   

THE END?  We'll see.

Guess not...

ROUND SIX

 In a message dated 10/15/2008 12:11:05 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time, Heidy writes:  

why are you so righteous? Why can't you just believe I am a mom looking for new books for her kids, because that is exactly who I am.
no conspiracies or ulterior motives...sorry to disappoint you

From: Stotan717
To: Heidy
Sent: 10/15/2008 12:28:09 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time
Subj: Re: info 

Look Heidy, there's no disappointment.  I don't care enough to be disappointed.  I don't believe you're simply a mom looking for new books for your kids for the reason I just gave you: because you saw a small vote for Obama! sign and decided it was more important to tell me what you didn't want to see on my web site than it was to go find out about the books.  I don't care whether or not you give my books to your kids.  There are plenty of great authors out there who aren't "deranged old men" to keep your kids reading good literature well into adulthood.  But if you want to criticize me for what I put on my web site, don't expect that I won't respond.  I don't accept your basic premises.  You say I'm defensive when I don't feel defensive at all.  That's your term.  You call me righteous when I don't feel righteous at all.  That's your term.  You become derisive and call me deranged.  Many of my friends might agree with you on that, but, again, it's your term.  There are all kinds of personal things on my web site; things that I believe in and things that inform my stories.  You seem to think you have the right to go there and criticize my choices of what to post.  And YOU DO!  And I have the right to answer you.  I knew you weren't telling the truth about being an Obama supporter when I read it, but I gave you the benefit of the doubt.  I don't care whom you support.  That's your business.  But when the entire agenda for your first email was to tell me I'm not supposed to put personal things  - and my political view was the personal thing you chose - I knew there was more of an agenda.  Whether I'm deranged or not, it can't be any other way.  I'm not interested in whether or not you put political signs in your yard, I'm interested in whether you go up to the houses of those who do, and tell them you don't think they should be telling you or your kids how to vote.  I mean, their signs are on personal property, but they're visible from the street, which is public property; just as my sign was on my personal web site, visible to you if you choose to pass by.   I make a case and you call me a name: righteous, defensive, deranged. 

And I admit, I called you an idiot, for which I apologize.  I got carried away by feeling so incredulous.  CC  
9:27 AM
 
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Ms. U
Shelly Unsicker

 
Omigosh. This reminds me of... well, I'm just not sure. Chris Crutcher, I have tremendous respect for you, for your work, and for the kids you reach with your books. That is not diminished at all by your role as a "deranged old man." ;) Honestly, I just don't think that mom was out of line. When I first read her original email, I had to admit that I had that same thought when I first visited your site.

I'm a teacher of 13 and 14 year olds. My goal is to encourage critical and independent thinking. I have strong political views, but I don't boast a political affiliation with a specific party. Nor do I tell my students who I'm voting for. On my MySpace I made friends with both Obama and McCain. I want my students to learn more about both candidates. I want my students to investigate all sides of an important issue and draw their own conclusions.

You're not a teacher in a public setting, as am I, but you are, in the best sense of the word, an educator. You have every right to put on your website what you will. But so does a mom have a right to express to you how your website impacts her and how she believes it may impact her children. I've re-read her original email and just didn't sense a personal attack, but then that's the thing about emails - no nonverbal ques to check against or with our assumptions.

I just have to wonder what kind of response might have helped that mom want to continue learning more about you and your books.

Best of luck with your future emails.

Shelly U.
 
Posted by Ms. U on Thursday, October 16, 2008 - 3:53 AM
[Reply to this] 
Beth Fehlbaum
Beth Fehlbaum

 
The thing that makes me such a fan of Chris' work, and that I try to emulate in my own writing, is his committment to the TRUTH and that he respects his readers enough to recognize their ability to think for themselves.
I am an author and also a teacher. For years I taught teenagers, and on the first day of school, I made a commitment to them, as I still do to the fifth graders that I teach now: they can count on me to be honest with them. I will always tell them the truth. If I am able to answer a direct question they ask me (i.e. if I decide it is within the bounds of appropriateness), I will answer it. I ask of my students the same committment to truth, that we respect each other enough to tell each other the truth.
I have never been asked an inappropriate question by a kid in response to this promise I make to them-- but I have been asked what I think of world events, what I think of the president, what I think of the war, etc. This is my tenth year of teaching, and I get asked these kinds of questions, every year.
I am honest with them: the United States is a great country. It is its citizens that make it a great country, and those citizens' right to express their own opinions is at the foundation of this country's strength. AND-- in spite of the Constitution guaranteeing U.S. citizens equal rights under the law, it took nearly 200 years for Civil Rights to become LAW...
AND there's the ugliness in the fact that the U.S. imprisoned its own citizens of Japanese descent in the 1940s...
AND the U.S. even now imprisons (oops I mean DETAINS) people without benefit of a trial, in Guantanamo...
AND, for all the grief and pride our country felt because of Sept. 11, the U.S. has murdered hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis because of a war based on lies. We, in the U.S., are unaware of much that our country has done in the name of spreading democracy, and to hell with the rights of others who get in its way. It is not something I am proud of. But I am proud of my country in countless other ways. But its imperialism--at horrific cost to other people in other countries-- especially in the last 8 years-- is something I think a more-informed public would be sickened by.
Do I tell my students all that?
What do you think?
I now teach kids whose parents came here from Mexico-- they came here, to the greatest country in the world-- to pursue better lives for their children. My students, like their parents, love their adopted homeland, and well they should. The U.S. is a great country BECAUSE we can express our views and love the country enough to try to make it a better place by standing up for our beliefs. I commit myself to not only teaching my students how to figure out hard English words and to write an essay that makes sense, but also to teaching them how lucky they are to live in a country that does not leave wrongs unaddressed. I want my immigrant kids to realize the blood, sweat, and tears that have gone into creating a country that allows kids of all colors to attend school TOGETHER. I want them to know that Martin Luther King, Jr., was an incredible person who paid the ultimate sacrifice for that right.
I believe that teachers, who usually see kids for more time each week than their own parents do, have a duty to model what it means to have a belief and be willing to explain the belief, in response to students asking questions. We also have a duty to love those students, accept them as they are, and help them learn to negotiate a world that is NOT simple and that, for many of those kids, often feels like a walk through hell.
We owe it to our students to be THAT person-- perhaps the ONLY adult in their life who respects them enough to talk to them as if they are intelligent beings, capable of weighing points-of-view--and, yes, sometimes the P.O.V. they find in a book or in a classroom will differ with the one they hear at home. That's what's so great about parent-child relationships-- when kids can ask their parents, "Hey what about...?" and that question is followed by a discussion about values, etc.
The woman who wrote Chris regarding his Obama sign on his MySpace made about as much sense to me as Sarah Palin does, when she is asked hard questions.
One more thing: Thank you, Chris, for being "THAT" person, for kids.

Beth Fehlbaum, author
Courage in Patience
 
Posted by Beth Fehlbaum on Sunday, October 26, 2008 - 1:44 AM
[Reply to this] 
Chris
Chris Crutcher

 
I don't have any problem whatever with a mom telling me how she feels about the impact of what I put on my web site. What I have a problem with, and what I said, was that I take issue with her telling me what to put on my website. She didn't tell me the impact, she told me what to do. You and I disagree on whether or not we should let kids know our opinions on whom to vote for, and that's a legitimate disagreement. I could certainly make a case for your side. If I were teaching a U.S. Government class I would do my best to remain neutral, or if I thought I were telegraphing my beliefs, would tell the kids where that was coming from. But I don't think not telling kids how you stand in any way protects them. I think it models standing up for what you believe in. Again, an arguable point. I don't put up my website to be educational in the sense that it's objective about information. (Actually I couldn't put my NAME on my web site because I don't know how, but I approve of the things that go on there; and I've taken some things down when I didn't) There are many people out there who think my books are trash. Recently a woman called me Satan. I'm not objective about that. I like my books. If Heidy had said what you said, I would have agreed with her. But if Heidy were driving by someone's house and saw Obama sign in the yard, would she stop and knock and tell the people that her kids saw what was on their private property from the public street and "Don't tell me how to vote"? I have strong opinions and I tell kids what they are. I also let kids, and adults voice their strong opinions with me and I appreciate it. That woman wasn't voicing an opinion in her early email. She was telling me what do to on my private web site. She also told me how important it was to her to find good books for her kids, and that she went to the web site to do that... and abandoned everything she went there for, and blew off the article she read that sent her there, because she saw a very small sign about my political preference. Well, the sign is bigger now. I visit a large number of schools every year. Kids want to know where my stories come from and I tell them. Much of my writing comes from the way I see the world... my world view, which turns into my philosophies. I think it is important to let them know where it's coming from. Again, I have all kinds of respect for your value of letting kids make up their own minds. To do that they're going to hear ideas and opinions from both sides. And that, as Forrest Gump says, is all I have to say about that.
 
Posted by Chris on Saturday, October 18, 2008 - 10:05 AM
[Reply to this] 
Kelly
Kelly Milner Halls

 
Shelly, you already mentioned that Chris isn't a paid educator, so you recognize he isn't bound by the same constraints you might feel bound to -- and I say "might" because one of my favorite teachers thought Nixon was god and often said so in class.

AND, frankly, I thought Heidy's letter was RUDE -- like visiting your neighbor's house, then complaining about the wallpaper.

But let's go back to my Nixonian guide. He was the best teacher I ever had, and not just because he made history real for me. He was invaluable and I will always be in his debt because he taught me to be BRAVE.

Loving Nixon was tough in a post-Watergate decade. The guy had resigned in shame -- hard to imagine after the attrocities of Bush, but true. Nixon WAS a crook, but my teacher stood firm in the face of ridicule and unkindness. I never took on his politics, but I did learn from his courage.

Whether he's endorsing Obama, writing decent, love-worthy gay characters, defending free speech, or standing up for the separation of church and state, Chris Crutcher is teaching today's kids the same kind of personal courage. To me, he's saying (my words, not his), "Be who you are, and I'll show you the way."

I'm glad people like Chris stand up for what they believe in, because, with courage, anything is possible. And that's one lesson I think any teenager could benefit from learning.

Kelly
 
Posted by Kelly on Friday, October 17, 2008 - 3:25 AM
[Reply to this] 
BookWoman

 
Hey, Chris and Kelly,
How are you both - I'm waiting for the election to be over. I would think that Chris has a perfect right to endorse whoever he wants on his website, after all, it is HIS.
This has certainly been a cantankerous campaign.
Georgi
 
Posted by BookWoman on Wednesday, October 22, 2008 - 11:54 PM
[Reply to this] 
•·.·joanna·.·•

 
um ...
WOW
... wow ...
∞∞∞∞∞∞WOW∞∞∞∞∞∞

I cannot believe this is real ...

This is why I am often disappointed in people ...
 
Posted by •·.·joanna·.·• on Thursday, October 16, 2008 - 11:57 PM
[Reply to this] 
Readingjunky

 
I'm an eighth grade teacher so most of my students aren't even thinking about politics and are simply annoyed by the continous TV commercials and interruptions regarding politics. However, if one of them asks who I'm voting for, I tell them. They need to hear what adults are thinking so they can listen to varying opinions and begin to formulate some of their own. If outside role models don't help provide good information, the only voices they will hear will be their parents'. That's a pretty one-sided education if you ask me. Who better than an educator to present facts (not propaganda) to students?
 
Posted by Readingjunky on Saturday, October 18, 2008 - 2:59 AM
[Reply to this] 
BookWoman

 
Good comment!
 
Posted by BookWoman on Wednesday, October 22, 2008 - 11:55 PM
[Reply to this] 
Kelly
Kelly Milner Halls

 
EXACTLY!

Kelly
 
Posted by Kelly on Saturday, October 18, 2008 - 5:46 AM
[Reply to this]