These aren’t sanitized for readers’ protection
Oh gosh, not another Barbaro column, but while I have the chance, I want to give credit to the pile of ashes for identifying the number of poor folks out there who have just lost it -- and who live among you.
Cassie Moore: “All I can hope for is a tragic death on your behalf. Cancer, an accident, something. Until then ...”
I think I know which way she’ll be leaning when it comes time to decide whether to contribute to the cure for laminitis, or the cure for cancer.
IT’S ONE thing to disagree with a columnist’s opinion, but what does it say about folks when they lose all perspective because they don’t agree with someone? And as bad as a columnist might be, what does it say about folks who come off sounding worse?
Doreen Kent: “Hope you break your leg and have to be euthanized. No one will notice; let alone mourn your loss. What a pathetic waste of human DNA you are.”
What a stunning development to learn people disagreed with the Barbaro column when I suggested they were cuckoo for placing the same value on a horse’s life as that of a human. Nice of them to e-mail, and confirm it.
Some of those who disagreed with the column on Barbaro got through to our Saturday letters editor, but for the sake of newspaper civility, it was the sanitized version that appeared -- no obscenities, no demands that someone be fired or suggestions that a human die because he wrote an irritating column.
That doesn’t mean we didn’t receive those e-mails.
M.K. Foose: “The world would be a better place had it been you who was euthanized rather than Barbaro.”
The sanitized letters make it appear as if this is some kind of healthy debate between sensible parties, and although it might be in some cases, it disguises the volume of anger out there from sports fans too upset to discuss things.
Message left on my phone from jockey Gary Stevens: “I read your article. I played golf with you one time in Palm Springs. You are a despicable person. That’s all I’ll say, you’re a despicable person.”
Stevens came across so much more reasoned in Saturday’s letter on Page 2, but once on the phone, I guess he was still ticked I didn’t give him more strokes.
THE MEDIA did a great job of humanizing Barbaro, and as long as he was limping around, the horse racing industry had something that had the public’s attention. No such luck, of course, for Skippy the squirrel, the little fur ball left squashed on the I-5. How come no memorial fund for Skippy?
They’re thinking of building a museum for the dead horse. It’ll be interesting to see what draws a larger crowd -- live racing at the track or an urn filled with the dead horse’s ashes. The way things are going in the horse racing industry, I’d make the urn a 3-1 favorite.
Of course, that now means I’ll probably hear from Mr. Langdon again.
Glenn M. Langdon: “After reading all of your callous remarks, I’m sure you are quite happy Barbaro has died, you heartless bastard. You better make sure you don’t get any assignments to Hollywood Park or Santa Anita, because we know what you look like, you heartless bastard. Hypocrite would be a good word to describe you, you heartless bastard. You do all this work to raise money for the children at the hospital and yet you have no sympathy for a wounded animal, you heartless bastard. Given the chance, I’d rip the heart right out of your chest, except I know that you do not have one, you heartless bastard.”
I replied: “It’s just a dead horse.”
Mr. Langdon’s response: “And when they die at the hospital, they’re just dead kids.”
Right now I just can’t think of an appropriate response.
Bob Fasching: “I’ve been reading about special foundations being set up for Barbaro. Meanwhile, an article on the cover of The Times referred to the troubled youth from Covenant House in Hollywood. If you go to the website for Covenant House you see all the great things donations can do to help so many kids that really need our help. Yet, the horse racing community thinks donations for the research to save the life of an injured horse is something that is important.”
I BEGAN the week unsettled by those who thought an injured horse actually had the time to sit down and read all the “Get Well” cards he received.
I suppose I could’ve written about the remarkable courage of the animal and how it would’ve made beautiful babies if only allowed to stand on its two hind legs, but it was just a horse -- and it’s a goner now. There are so many more things worth getting worked up about -- just ask Lamar and Sasha.
Now that we’re at week’s end, though, after dealing with some of the people who live among you, I’m convinced more than ever that one of the functions of sports is to show us just how some folks, or fans of Nebraska football, lose it at times. If I were you, I’d stay away from Bears fans today after the Colts win.
Male Caller: “I would like to invite you and your doctor to meet me at the winner’s circle at Santa Anita. You’re going to need your doctor to remove my fist from down your throat. Come on, I want to see you -- I’ve got something for you.”
He added a few obscenities, which ended the conversation, but Saturday he called the “The Roger Stein Show” on 830 and repeated the threat. The U.S. military reported the deaths of five more soldiers last week. I wonder if he felt the same outrage and made a similar call to the White House.
If so, I hope he lets me know the time for visiting hours.
Matt Cook: “If Barbaro is on his way to horse heaven, I would like to send you to sportswriter hell where you belong. And, believe me, I could end your old, ugly [butt] in about two seconds with my pinkie finger -- no less.”
You could also use your pinkie to turn from Page 1 to Page 3 and not get so worked up. Or maybe that’s what you really want.
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T.J. Simers can be reached at t.j.simers@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Simers, go to latimes.com/simers.