Henrietta Hay's Column

It's time to re-read the year's mail. One of the greatest things about writing a column is finding that somebody reads it. Most of your comments have been friendly, informative, funny or all of the above. There are, of course, a few who think I'm nuts, but you can't please everybody. One of the mottoes hanging over my desk reads, "If you can't annoy someone there is little point in writing."

I have made several new email friends this year and I enjoy reading everything that comes along. I try to answer them all, but don't always succeed and I hope you will forgive me.

Here is an update on last year's story of Ariel, the little wild colt who had the misfortune to be born to a mother without much sense of place. Mama was standing on the edge of a cliff when she gave birth and the little newborn tumbled 60 feet. Ariel was rescued and adopted and is alive and well. The "Wild Horse Lady" keeps me informed.

I have one correspondent who always writes when he thinks I have strayed from the firm Religious Right Party Line - which I do religiously. I strayed with football and prayer, and he said, "For a court to suggest that it is somehow OK for a student to pray over a school lunch . . . yet students may not choose to honor community tradition and give an invocation before a football game opposes EVERYTHING this nation and its founding fathers stood for." Gee, football wasn't even a tradition in 1776.

A more rational man wrote, " . . . you're wondering which would have shocked Thomas Jefferson more, seeing a football game or hearing a prayer at one. Jefferson was a Deist. I think he would have been more shocked by prayer."

I had a long letter from a man who should be very happy now. He said, "Al Gore doesn't scare me-- it's people like you that actually believe his B. S. that scare the Hell out of me." I won't quote what he said about Hillary.

But there is lots of wonderful mail.

A woman from Montrose liked the column on etymology, my protest at "nouning" and "verbing" our perfectly good language. She writes of her 6th grade English teacher and adds, "I just turned 70 and I can recite very rapidly the 22 intransitive verbs at the drop of a hat." Wow. That's about 21 more than I can manage.

Oh yes, one local couple named their new puppy after me. I'm not sure what that means.

In one column I mentioned my mother's favorite Senator, Peter Dominick. Much to my amazement I received a message from his son, "Sandy," who lives in Arizona. He wrote, "I just want to thank you for bringing my father into the 21st century, for me, and my wife and children, who never knew him, and for your readers who probably never knew him either."

After my 86th birthday column I heard from several eighty-something women. One said, "I just had my 80th . . . Don't ever forget that you are a blessing to women who dare to THINK." Another one said she hopes I live to be 100. These reminded me of Gloria Steinem's comment, "One day an army of gray-haired women may quietly take over the earth." But we do have to elect a female president first.

Dr. Laura stirred up fewer furors than I had expected. Most of the mail agreed with me, that she ready for retirement. I got several copies of a tongue-in-cheek e-mail letter to Dr. Laura. It starts off with, "Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's Law, and I try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can." The rest of it is true but probably not quotable here!

The response that I treasure the most came from Phoenix when I received a copy of the Arizona Civil Liberties Union Annual Report. The President's Report quoted my column in full, the one against posting the Ten Commandments in every schoolroom. My son John, who is President, wrote, " . . . she said it better than I can." Respect for the First Amendment runs deep in my family.

You can't write a column in a vacuum, Thanks to everyone who wrote.