Letter

Date: Wed, 4 Sep 2002
From: Richard BG
Subject: To Whom It May Concern
To: webmaster@religiousfreedomwatch.org

Dear Sir or Madam,

My grandmother asked me to send you the attached letter addressed to Ida Camburn. She believes that Ida reads the internet more than she would care to read her snail mail. I tried to discourage her from sending the attached letter but she insisted because she wants Ida to know that she is disgusted with the way she has been treating her two sons and other people.

Thanks,
Richard

Dear Ida,

I have watched you work your hardest to harm people for a very long time. The saddest part is that the people you have harmed the most are members of your own family. You are what my mother would have called “a vicious old biddy” although it isn’t the aches and pains of old age that have made you what you are. From what I’ve seen, you’ve been making people miserable all your life especially your boys. Your ways go beyond just spreading a little idle gossip. You work hard at hurting people. I know you played a large part in the break-up of Ron’s first marriage, and nearly split him away from his kids as well (even at my old age I have memories of your misdeeds). Ron had found a life for himself and you just couldn’t stand seeing him happy or not being able to control him the way you used to. You even spread rumors about him to the rest of the family (and anyone who would listen) trying to make him out to be a failure and a bad son. He was a decent man and far more attentive to his mother than you deserved. Even if I don’t share Ron’s chosen religion I do respect him. You put him through hell for nearly three decades.

You then started causing trouble in your community. Some very unsavory fellows started visiting you, even living with you from time to time. You told people they were part of some “cause” you had become involved in and tried to make yourself sound very important. But it turned out that some of them were in trouble with the police. One in particular who was living with you was later tried and convicted. That’s what I read in the paper.

When I discovered what you were involved in, I was really shocked and a little frightened. Some of your “friends” turned out to be involved in making threats against people your son is affiliated with. Some are involved in anti-Christian activities and at least one is a supporter of white supremacists. For a moment I almost felt sorry for you. Here was a bitter, lonely old woman, I thought, without any friends and a family that has come to despise her. Maybe you just started writing to people on the internet and these criminals thought you sounded like someone they could take advantage of.

Perhaps this is so. But after reflecting on all I know about you, I found I had no pity for you. You are not just some sorry old lady. You are as vicious a tongue in your head as any woman I know. You have been this way as long as I’ve known of you. You chose those friends purposely because, as they say, water seeks its own level.

I hope this message will give you and anyone who associates with you cause to think twice before causing anymore trouble to innocent people or any more pain and suffering to others including your own very son. Find your two boys and be a real mother, it is never too late.

A Grandmother like you.