Whatever ash is responding to is long gone from her files. But the gist of the original message should be readily apparent from her retort. Note the controlled sarcasm she uses to make her point effectively.
Letter writer [name withheld] probably doesn’t keep a file on all the letters to the editors and opinion pieces – both published and unpublished – I’ve submitted to the State Journal-Register over the nearly 30 years I’ve resided in Springfield. But I do, so it certainly came as news to me that I’m an Iraqi “terrorist sympathizer.”
Mr. [name withheld] must be a mind reader. In the past three years since the “liberation,” “invasion and subsequent occupation,” or however one characterizes it, I find that I have never expressed an opinion on the Iraqi war. Nor have I described how I felt at the sight of a newly captured Sadam in his dirt hole, his two dead sons, and purple fingers signifying having voted in last week’s elections. Yet he lumps me in with national and local commentators whose judgment that it was not wise (nor cost effective) to disempower a dictator posing no threat to the United States somehow equates with rooting for the insurgents.
That I deplore Bush – now that is well-documented, if another matter entirely. Currently I deplore the administration’s effort to slash funding for an array of social programs benefiting the poor and ailing among us. I also wonder at a self-described born-again Christian of the compassionate conservative persuasion proposing such a solution to the deficit. Perhaps a non Bush-hater such as Mr. Smith would care to justify that one to those of us who think less highly of Bush.
And now I must thank Mr. [name withheld]. Thank you for including me among an array of many fine liberals, local and national, on these pages and beyond.