Wingnut letter in my local paper and my rebuttal

IrateCitizen

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Tue Jun-29-04 01:25 PM
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Wingnut letter in my local paper and my rebuttal

This is the first time I've responded directly to a piece of wingnut trash in my local newspaper. I guess it's the spirit of F9/11 and Michael Moore's attitude toward the press that is propelling me to speak out against this kind of hateful vitriol.

Here's the letter in question, from the NY Journal News (http://www.nyjournalnews.com)

Democrats irrational in attacks on Bush
(Original publication: June 29, 2004)

Democrats have lost their collective minds and sold out their party to America's left. How else to explain their irrational hatred of President Bush and their morbid fixation on the isolated incident at Abu Ghraib while virtually ignoring the grisly murder of Nick Berg by hooded terrorists, pan-Arab aggression and the corruption of the United Nations, led by France, a nation with an incurable Napoleonic complex, and her traditional enemy, Germany, which gave the world Adolf Hitler.

Now, for purely political reasons, America, the country that saved France from Germany in two world wars, is France's enemy and Germany her friend. Did anyone say a good deed never goes unpunished?

Sadly, America has as many domestic enemies as foreign ones. It is easy to dismiss the vicious attacks on Bush as campaign rhetoric, but how can we make sense of the warped image of America projected by individuals like Michael Moore and George Soros and groups like the American Civil Liberties Union and the liberal media? Or Susan Sontag's brainlock? Writing in the New York Times, Sontag equated Abu Ghraib with the Holocaust.

Democrats who believe in God and country don't seem to realize they are voting against their way of life when they vote for a Democratic agenda that advocates a secular, one-world society in which international law supersedes American law.

Daniel DiGiacomo, Yonkers

And here's my rebuttal, which I just submitted. I'll let you know if it gets printed.

Dissenters are the True Patriots

There are so many factual and historical inaccuracies in Mr. DiGiacomo’s letter, one hardly knows where to begin. But I’ll focus on the obvious. Many people around the country – including Democrats, independents, and even Republicans – are angry beyond belief with President Bush because he lied his way into an unnecessary war that is now being paid for with the blood of America’s young men and women.

Weapons of mass destruction? Nonexistent. Al Qaeda ties? The 9/11 Commission stated that there weren’t any. Stopping Saddam’s torture of Iraqis? That went out the window with the exposure of torture and abuse not only at Abu Ghraib, but throughout the country. So tell me again, why exactly have over 800 of our young men and women given their lives in Iraq, Mr. DiGiacomo?

Mr. DiGiacomo also engages in a popular falsehood of the reactionary right by equating the Bush Administration with America. Our Founding Fathers would have begged to differ, considering the manner in which they elevated dissent to one of the highest expressions of patriotism. Many of us still believe in the views of our Founding Fathers despite the efforts of the reactionary right to intimidate us into silence with their predictable but baseless refrain of calling us “America haters”. Mr. DiGiacomo uses Michael Moore as an example of such an “America hater” – I wonder if he has even bothered to see his movie?

Anger with Bush stems from the fact that he has betrayed every good thing that America is supposed to stand for, and replaced it with a culture of fear, lawlessness, selfishness and hatred. But the tide is changing, thanks to the efforts of patriotic Americans like Michael Moore. It is becoming apparent that those of us who believe in the ideals of America embodied in the writings of our Founding Fathers, as opposed to mindless jingoism and nationalism, will no longer be silent. This is good news for America, but bad news for the reactionary right and its sycophants.

Christopher Harrison
Mt. Kisco, NY

So, whaddya think?