Doug Bower

[doncoulter]

Dear Sue Jackson,

I am one of the people who occasionally took Doug Bower to task for the hysterical ravings in his blog. He hates Mexicans, he hates ?Gringos,? he hates expats, and his blog was a broken record of these twisted obsessions. You refer to his writing ?the truth about Guanajuato.? The ?truth? is that Doug can?t handle the truth. Every fact he ever encountered about our town and its residents, both native and foreign, was embellished or distorted in his blog beyond recognition. If he has indeed given up his online screeching, good riddance.

But yes, since you asked, I do believe in free speech. Like iowagto, I never questioned Doug?s right to report about crime or anything else in Guanajuato. What I did object to was his pathological exaggeration regarding such crime, and his repeated failures, when corrected, to acknowledge error. Speaking of exaggeration, I don?t believe anyone ever threatened Doug and his wife. He repeatedly claimed to have been threatened?with death!?but never offered any evidence. In a blog post three years ago, he promised to provide such evidence to anyone who asked. I asked. He reneged. And I can prove it.

For other examples of his exaggeration and downright dishonesty, you need look no further than the e-mail he wrote you. Take his contention that ?the collective lot of these poor souls cannot speak enough Spanish to find us.? Although I have no interest in finding him, I in fact speak better Spanish than Doug (this is not a large boast), and there are many ?Gringos? here who can claim the same. For another example, when he writes that ?there has been talk of bringing in the military to quell the gang activity,? he?s not telling you the whole story. Yes, such a suggestion was made?it?s not clear by whom?but it was immediately rejected by the powers that be. How typical of Bower to give you only the part of the story that fits his negative, destructive agenda.

I?m not sure whether Doug has really left Guanajuato?we have only his word for it, and we know what that?s worth?but perhaps he has. If anything I?ve written over the years has played even a small part in ?running him out of town,? then I?m pleased to have contributed to civic improvement.

Don Coulter

?Reading Doggie Bow-Wow So You Don?t Have To?
Since 2005