Dr. Laura: Private Time for a Public Figure

How sad that Robert Scheer should be so full of hatred and bitterness aimed at Dr. Laura Schlessinger (Commentary, Dec. 24). His attack at a time of sadness in the life of another human says more about the one who is doing the kicking than the one who is down. We can expect to be in a similar circumstance of loss one day. We can either comfort the family remaining or prepare for our own losses. But there is no call for such angry vituperation.

Elaine Binder

South Pasadena

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I hope Scheer is mistaken in assuming Schlessinger “will no doubt continue as a hot media product and a darling of the religious conservatives.” As recently demonstrated in the Sen. Trent Lott saga, when an opportunist like Schlessinger is exposed, she should gracefully retire and contemplate her duplicitous life.

Ame Diane Vaughan-Pitt

Los Angeles

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Scheer hits the nail on the head. Daily, Dr. Laura spews venom at those who choose to have different views or live their lives differently from hers, flinging invective at liberals, feminists, the ACLU, teachers, homosexuals, working mothers, most therapists and Democrats. She harangues listeners to “honor your mother and father” while her mother lies rotting in her home for two months.

She claims “I am my kid’s mom” and bashes working mothers while she spends the better part of each day doing a radio show, not to mention writing books, traveling on promotional tours and speaking engagements. I don’t begrudge Dr. Laura her beliefs, just her desire to impose them on the rest of us.

David Cavanaugh

Long Beach

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As a psychologist I am often shocked by some of Schlessinger’s advice. Like Scheer and many detractors of her judgmental side, I share in a degree of contemptuousness toward her. So it is with some mixture of feelings that I feel compelled to rush to her defense. She has stated that her mother refused to speak to her and others over 15 years ago. It is quite within the realm of possibility that Dr. Laura made many attempts to communicate and failed. The person who refuses to talk has all the power and is usually the person with the unresolved problem. Rather than being so judgmental with Dr. Laura, why don’t we leave her alone in her grief?

Rosemary J. Zook

East Stroudsburg, Pa.