The hubs received his first anonymous letter. If there is such a "first." I've come to call it his "Zodiac Killer Letter," mostly because the effort this anonymous West Linn resident went to reminds me of someone who cuts letters out of newspapers to put together cryptograms to send to the press. Fortunately, Alex's letter is non-threatening and actually really poorly organized, but worded in a way that tickles me. Mostly it's the sporadic use of all caps and the underlined "Shame on you" that fill me with an odd sense of pride of my husband.
The anonymous letter was inspired by an Opinion piece Alex wrote and the West Linn Tidings newspaper printed. In a nutshell - a local sports media icon and WL resident, John Canzano, said a few things in a broadcast/in writing about the WLHS basketball program and current transfer "issues" that Alex recognized (and eloquently pointed out) as a classic illustration of the subtle but pervasive racism in current society, and particularly in a community like that of WL.
Alex did receive a few other emails in response to the Op-Ed - from students' parents, which he had the opportunity to address appropriately, and from Canzano himself. But only this one was so thoughtfully typed and printed, including separate envelopes also sent to the WLHS principal and the athletic director, marked with a fake return address of "Fairness Lane, West Linn, OR 97068."
So aside from the fact that some WL resident, presumably, took the time to write this poorly organized, ill-informed and irate letter (not to say the issues s/he puts forth are/are not true, they are no related to what Alex had written), print it 3x, stuff and address 3 separate envelopes, and include 3x postage to send out this anonymous voice on behalf of the "WL parents and community" - the part that truly gets me is just how much time and energy grown-ass people have to devote to issues of high school sports.
And just for the sake of clarity, since the water so easily gets muddied - Alex wrote in response to the LANGUAGE and the CONTEXT Canzano used when talking about the WLHS basketball team and the "transfer issue." Alex was NOT speaking to anything related to basketball, transfers, the current bball team dynamic, or even the new WLHS students themselves. In other words, Alex's piece had nothing to do with WLHS basketball at all (because let's be real, aside from supporting his students, he could give a fuck about the sport). Rather, he was inspired by Canzano's spoken and written communication. He was provided with an opportunity to address that what we say and how we say it MATTERS. He had the chance to transfer some of what he teaches in the classroom to real life, in a tangible way. In speech therapy, we call this generalization.
Simply put, Alex seized a timely "teaching moment."
And yes, Alex gave me permission to have this anonymous personal attack posted on my blog.
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