Readers Love Cuddling, and Social Security

A round-up of some of this week's best reader-lead conversations.

By Jamilah King Aug 21, 2010

At least this much is true about our ColorLines community: ya’ll love you some Antoine Dodson. But not as much as the two maligned black men caught cuddling on Atlanta’s metro. And it didn’t stop there. You chimed in on everything form Social Security to the Constitution, and we loved every minute of it. Here’s some of this week’s best, from you, the readers.

On Black Men Cuddle on Subway, Web Hits Panic Button, Auntikrist said:

I LOVE this picture. It is a picture of peace, contentment and trust. Problem is that most of the U.S. public prefers pictures of violence, hatred and conflict. People who are all up in arms and offended by this harmless and tender affection are sick, sick people. Love and affection are NEVER wrong. God bless these young men. This picture makes me feel really good inside.

And when it came to Antoine Dodson, whether or not you loved him, you had to admit he’s got his business savvy on. We already pointed out Juell Stewart’s comment on Friday that he may be more in control of his image than we think. Readers also kept the discussion going on Facebook, with one bringing the conversation back to gender:

Commenter Wake Up! responded to Seth Wessler’s piece on the fight against privatizing Social Security:

My concern is when you "privatize" a institution with the vast sums of money involved with Social Security, how do you prevent these greedy jerks from privatizing it for themselves? When ever money or power is involved, these so-called conservatives are more corrupt than most people can imagine and have proven time and time again how far they will sink to keep themselves on top.

JAM chimed in on Julianne Hing’s post that Dr. Laura’s quitting her show to "gain her first amendment rights":

First amendment rights were forged to protect people from government censorship not editorial censorship…She didn’t lose any rights, she just lost that job of hers, another school book lesson learned about "amendment rights."

And, finally, there was Jorge Rivas’ post on President Obama’s decision to bring daughter Sasha to swim in the Gulf. Frankly, ya’ll hated it. Activist summed up the sentiment:

If you guys want to be respected as a serious journalism/ news site, please be a little more professional and try not to sensationalize information.

Point taken. But to be fair, we do try to tackle pretty important stuff around here: Education reform, poverty, broadband, police brutality. We think it’s good to change things up every now and then.