LETTERS

Periodically I pick up the Weekly. This time I saw your column and it hit home. So many times I will read a given article and see what I believe are glaring mistakes, and think to myself, where's the proofreader? Well, sir, I commend you on your diligence. I thought I was the only one ...

Keep up the good work.

Readers Run for Cover

Last week's cover drew a bit of reader response:

I just wanted to say I really like the cover this week. The whole Valentine thing is really cute. Plus, I think that girl is beautiful! One of the best!

Congratulations are in order for the both of you. Not only did I pick up the paper, but I read the credits and sent you an e-mail.

So few models can manage to even look at the camera, let alone come up with the perfect expression for the shot.

So Veronica wanted a record pick-up week? Well, as far as this reader is concerned, she succeeded. Adjectives like ALLURING and ENCHANTING come to mind when I look at the cover. Kudos to the photographer for a great effort.

I can only imagine the looks on friends' faces back east when they receive the copies I mailed. Sure will help them get through another arctic blast.

Editor's note:
We're braced for a similar deluge of letters about this week's cover. Sorry, the model—alluring! enchanting!—is taken.

'Warren's Followers Are Re-enacting This Pitiful Tale'

Richard Abowitz received the following after his portion of the February 5 cover package on polygamy in Colorado City, Arizona:

I don't know if you've ever read any of Eric Hoffer's books on the psychology of people in mass movements, but your story on the FLDS reminded me of some of Hoffer's insights. For example:

"Modern man is weighed down more by the burden of responsibility than by the burden of sin. We think him more a savior who shoulders our responsibilities than him who shoulders our sins. If instead of making decisions we have but to obey and do our duty, we feel it as a sort of salvation." "There is a powerful craving in most of us to see ourselves as instruments in the hands of others and thus free ourselves from the responsibility for acts which are prompted by our own questionable inclinations and impulses."

For the FLDS members, it is easier to have Warren Jeffs make decisions for them than it would be for them to be forced to take responsibility for their own decisions.

"That which corrodes the souls of the persecuted is the monstrous inner agreement with the prevailing prejudice against them."

The women who belong to the FLDS can accept the prejudices against them because they've been brainwashed into believing that those prejudices are valid.

Hoffer also writes of the Stalinist purges in the 1930s; the purged Party members would confess to sins they hadn't committed. Their individual identity had been subsumed so completely into their identity as a Party member that they could no longer conceive of the prospect of existence outside of the Party. They went into Stalin's show trials and confessed to nonexistent crimes, since they preferred to be a disgraced member of the group than to be outside of the group completely. Jeffs' followers are re-enacting this pitiful tale.

It's particularly pathetic to see that some people are so gullible and so desperate to belong that they will follow a lunatic like Jeffs.

Register Jockeys Have Feelings, Too

This note is in response to Josh Bell admitting that shopping at Hot Topic is one of his guilty pleasures! (Cover story, January 29.)

You rock ... not many people over that magical age of 14 will cop to it. We have found a pleasure far guiltier, and that is actually working here!

I do want to take issue with a couple of things, though, and the first is simply referring to us as "register jockey." I do appreciate your creativity to not resort to the boring old "sales associate" title, but we are far more than either. A typical day for us will begin two to four hours before the mall even opens, and ends a couple of hours after the mall closes. We are a cleaning crew, glorified babysitters, loss-prevention teams and, yes, even register jockeys! There is so much that we do behind the scenes to make it appear that all we do is stand and look pretty. I could write an entire article on just that.

As for you being met with contempt, I would like to apologize on the behalf of the store that you encountered that in. It is part of our company culture to treat everyone with respect, no matter the age or any other factor that might provoke prejudice. We embrace diversity and appreciate it. I am glad to hear that you are satisfied when you leave the store, but we want you to be so excited that you can't wait to come back! I hope you come in and see us so we can give you an awesome Hot Topic Experience, and you don't need to feel guilty at all! In fact, we will even give you an autographed glossy to take and hang next to Mary-Kate and Ashley ...

Editor's note:
What? Next to Mary-Kate and Ashley? And take down the shrine to Hillary Duff?