A few weeks ago I had another of my letters to the Local Newspaper “The Potomac News” published. This letter expressed my lack of sympathy towards one of our most out-spoken racists complaining about being listed in the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) as a “nativist.”
My letter received a direct letter to the editor rebuttal only two days later. My follow-up was never published by “The Potomac News,” so I’m publishing it here.
Last week I submitted another of my on-going series of Letters to the Editor of our local newspaper “The Potomac News.” This time, I took on a local wing-nut who is key in whipping up anti-immigration hysteria in this area. It seems that after a few years of diligently and successfully working to build his reputation as a local racist, this individual was unhappy about being labeled a “nativist” by the Southern Poverty Law Center and local newspapers.
Now that the Republican Party has settled on their candidate for President, Saint John McCain of Hanoi Hilton, we quickly see the main theme of the Republican campaign; Fear, Fear, and Fear.
In my on-going letter-writing campaign, I do believe I’m making progress in shaping the local debates.
I’ve been posting letters to the editor (LTEs) fairly regularly these past months. Most of the letters end up being published here on my family blog along with background commentary. What I don’t usually publish here, or even comment on, are e-mails I’ve been sending directly to the columnists. Normally, the columnists ignore my e-mails. On two occasions they’ve graced me with nasty replies, which I get the last word in on.
But for the first time ever, several weeks ago a writer actually published my e-mail to him as basis for an extremely mean-spirited and insulting column. The end result was getting my first-ever column published under my byline.
Here in my lovely Prince William County, we have a group of very vocal people complaining about “Illegal Immigrants.” These people complain about a lot of things in general, but immigrants are tops on their list. Our County Board of Supervisors, led by one Cory Stewart, have done what politicians in a democratically-elected government always seem to do – pander to the loudest.
Just because yesterday was Thanksgiving, it didn’t mean all the turkeys were in the ovens and on the tables. Yesterday’s Potomac News columnists included two of my most favorite writers; Charles Reichley and the big turkey himself, James Simpson. Reichley’s column was incoherent to the point of being meaningless and I actually couldn’t read all the way through. Simpson’s column, however, pissed me off.
So for the second time this month, I’ve written a rebuttal to one of Simpson’s columns. To the many things I was thankful for yesterday, add that I’m thankful no trees were killed to support my latest LTE.
Back on November 14, the editorial section of my favorite local newspaper “The Potomac News” once again scored big with one of our local columnists James Simpson. Unlike Ken Concannon and Charles Reichley, I haven’t bothered writing rebuttals or personal e-mails to Mr. Simpson before, simply because I don’t normally consider him worth the effort.
However, for this particular column I just had to make an exception and respond.
Last week my newest most favorite “The Potomac News” columnist, Charles Reichley, ran a column defending Rush Limbaugh’s now infamous “Phony Soldiers” comment. Rush “ditto head” Limbaugh annoys me just by sharing the same planet, but his September 26 “Phony Soldier” crack really got to me. I’d already signed Gen Wes Clark’s petition to have Limbaugh’s show pulled from the Military Armed Forces Radio Television Stations (AFRTS) network, and Reichley’s column was one more chance to make my feelings publicity known.
I submitted my LTE Friday morning, and it was published yesterday, Sunday.
Yo Hablo Espanol
“Everyone who comes to America should learn to speak English.” If I only had a nickel for every time I heard this idealistic statement. This statement might work in a perfect world, but our world is far from perfect.
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