The Pen Is Mightier Than Ignorance

In answer to my letter to the editor on the president's State of the Union Speech (see previous post State of Disunity), a genius here in Lake Charles had a letter printed today in answer to mine. Of course I have answered in kind and hope the local paper prints it. First from him:
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In response to yet another Bush bashing letter written by Sam Schoolsky, he talked about possibly being eavesdropped on and put on a black plane and sent off somewhere. What an awesome idea! I hope they also put Bill Press, Ted Kennedy, Charles Schumer, Dianne Feinstein, and the ACLU on the same plane. How wonderful and god-loving the country would be without all these negative folks always trying to bring down our president. The president's State of the Union speech was positive and upbeat. If it were not folks like the above mentioned, President Bush could do all the things to make us a better, safe and godly country. Do we need hidden prisons? Do we need spying? Do we need secrets? You bet. These methods have been successful for all of this country's years. The New York Times and anyone else talking about our country's secrets should be locked up. The secrets are our advantage to intercepting our enemies' plans and goals. We must do all we can to protect our country from another Sept. 11. President Bush is trying his best to protect us. If this means spying on me, then go for it. If you don't have anything to hide, then what's wrong with it? I think this country would be better off if negative comments were just kept out of our lives. I don't know how anyone with such a negative attitude ever enjoys life. As for myself and the rest of Bush believers, we're happy and we love life. We believe in God, and we believe in and back our president. Let him do his job and keep all the necessary secrets going on. What we don't know, we don't need to know. Get a life and move on.
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And of course, my answer:

Dear editor:

Thank you for printing the letter from Phil Broussard (February 12, 2006,) showing what real lack of knowledge is truly like. Mr. Broussard’s rantings prove my point when he states, “What we don’t know, we don’t need to know.” Yes, ignorance is bliss, and sticking your head in the sand doesn’t help.

He suggests that I should be put on a “black plane and sent off somewhere, along with Bill Press, Ted Kennedy, Charles Schumer, Dianne Feinstein and the ACLU.” I am flattered to be in such esteemed company. Of course this is not original demagogic thinking.

Let’s see……Stalin sent dissenters off to Siberia (killed over six million,) Hitler sent the Jews to Auschweitz and assorted other killing camps (killed over six million,) Roosevelt sent thousands of loyal Japanese-Americans to internment camps during the Second World War, our government sent the Cherokee Nation from Georgia and North Carolina onto the “Trail of Tears” and onto barren reservations, the French Revolution sent thousands of dissenters to the guillotine, etc, etc, etc. Evidently Mr. Broussard, with his anti-Constitutional, bigoted, ‘love me or leave me’ attitude fits in well with these hateful scenarios. He would have made a faithful follower of the dictators of history who worked in secrecy and claimed to know better than anyone else, no matter how many died along the way. I think Pontius Pilate was the first of these.

God help us the day we lose our Constitutional rights that so many fought and died for during our country’s wars. In case Mr. Broussard doesn’t know it, that is exactly what our brave troops are doing in Iraq and Afghanistan, protecting our rights, including the right to dissent. Maybe Mr. Bush, in his way (that I happen to disagree with,), is defending these rights, but one of them certainly is not shutting people up as Mr. Broussard suggested.