A longtime reader of ours wrote a note in response to something I wrote about Rush Limbaugh and the defamation of him in a concert hall. I thought others would like to see it:

Dear Jay,
I grew up in Dayton, Ohio, in the ’60s. As a child, teenager, and young man there, I heard plenty of open hatred directed mostly towards blacks, although there were also many ugly things said about Jews and other minorities. Interestingly, that all seems to have stopped. I asked my brother, who still lives in Dayton, if he ever hears any of that old garbage. He said no, everyone out there has pretty much outgrown it.
These days I hear more than a small amount of the crap I heard back in Dayton decades ago here in the San Francisco Bay Area, only this time it’s directed against conservatives, men, whites, and, of course, Jews. As in the Dayton of my youth, often the worst comments come from well-educated people of means. The optimist in me believes that someday the people here will outgrow their prejudices, too. Still, it is awful to hear this nonsense, particularly since it’s only rarely that you can realistically choose to confront it.
The other day, my wife came home in a cold fury because her hairdresser decided to treat her to his thoughts about Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel, and the Jews while he was cutting and coloring her hair. That’s really not a good time or place for an argument. She said that the worst part was that she had no choice but to sit there and listen to that hate.