A recent column on e-mail's tendency to free the inner bully in us all struck a chord with dozens of readers, many of whom made comparisons between e-mailers and drivers.
"I fear e-mail has become the equivalent of highway driver mentality," wrote one. "If you can't see them as another person because you can't really see their face or hear their voice, then it's somehow okay for you to treat them like nothing more than the shell of a car."
"Surely e-mail is somewhat akin to the automobile," wrote another, "in that anonymity tends to dismiss civility."
A teenage blogger wrote to say she'd been the victim of at least one "cyber-jerk" who misspelled her name even as he lectured her on the importance of good grammar, spelling and math. "It's been four months since I've updated my GenWhy Record-Eagle blog for precisely this reason," she said. "People are cruel enough in real life; why give them a chance with my writing?"
Several readers contend people in the service industry run afoul of the nastiest correspondents.
"As a person who has run numerous online media sites (most on a shoestring), I have been continually amazed by the service people feel entitled to and the scorn they give you when your service is not up to their standards," wrote one. "I think part of it is the impulsive and faceless nature of e-mail, but it's also indicative of a general lack of manners in our country."
A few wrote with suggestions for e-mail etiquette, including a longtime attorney.
"If all of us could just count to 10 or wait until the next day before sending these angry missiles, we might just rethink and/or modify our words (meaning: tone it down)," he wrote. "But with the advent of e-mail, instant communications allows a person who gets angry or upset to immediately sit down at the keyboard and pound out an angry response. Then, without a second thought, or before counting to 10, all that person has to do is hit the 'send' button and that angry missile is on its way, and you can't take it back."
Then there were those who missed the point completely.
"Now you know how many of the Record-Eagle readers feel with all the hate your paper prints on anything the editors don't like," wrote one, "as in Republicans, local sheriffs, some local stores (Meijer), County Commissioners (except for the little Miss Perfect Christine Maxbauer), and most of all the war against terror."
Added another: "None of the Record-Eagle staff seem to realize that there is a whole population of area residents who disagree completely with your nauseatingly negative bash-Bush, bash-war, bash-economy, bash-USA blame-a-nomics where everything pre-Bush was laughably perfect and everything since is in the toilet."
Marta Hepler Drahos can be reached at mdrahos@record-eagle.com.
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