To the editor
By:
The letter in the Sept. 21 issue of the Beacon, in which the writer accuses the Hillsborough Beacon and a cartoonist of becoming "active, if likely unwitting supporters of our enemies," is a perfect example of why the cartoon in question is so necessary.
The writer says the cartoon’s references to the Bush administration’s violating human rights, practicing torture and spying on its citizens are "delusional." Is it a delusion that hundreds of men are being held at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere without counsel or trial the kind of thing we cry out against when Americans are held in foreign prisons?
And what about the CIA’s exporting of suspects to countries where torture is permitted; and those photographs from Abu Ghraib; not to mention Bush’s resistance to Sen. John McCain, et al, to denounce torture are they all delusions?
And the government’s collection of private telephone records of literally millions of Americans, was that just a delusion, too?
When Abraham Lincoln said "a house divided against itself cannot stand," he was referring to the Civil War, not to criticism from the press or public debate.
The statement that the media and others are anti-American when they challenge or criticize the government is itself an anti-American statement. The irony is amazing. Our Freedom of Speech is one of the things that makes the U.S. great, and helps set us apart from our enemies.
The writer claims that liberals like to "blame America first," obediently parroting the line dreamt up by Bush, Rove, Cheney and Co. This is a comment meant to divert the argument away from the facts. When people and not just liberals criticize the Bush administration for trampling on the Constitution while destroying our military in a pointless war, they’re not blaming the country, they’re putting the blame squarely where it belongs.
The notion that liberals love the U.S. less than conservatives is noxious. It’s the kind of name-calling comment made by people who have no rational argument to make.
Perhaps the writer would prefer to live in a country where the media convey everything the way the government wants it conveyed, such as North Korea, China or Cuba.
Hillsborough

