Speakout 1/8

Sunday, January 8, 2006

Editor's note: The following letters were received by Speakout; the subject is now considered closed.

When anyone has his or her character assassinated, we all should wonder who is going to be next. Us? So I have to say something about "Tiff with Smith" and I would like all of Sikeston to hear me. That SpeakOut person said, "Big Whoopee" about Mr. Smith's service to the nation as though he condemned it and found it to be degrading. Since he did not sign his name, I will have to call him assassinator. So here goes: Mr. Assassinator, you really have no respect for anyone who served, do you? You said you served, but then you said "Big Whoopee." As a veteran of World War II, I found your comments insulting and degrading. I have news for you. Those of us who served are the very ones who have fought for you to have the right to speak. Even though many of my friends died and more of us right here in Sikeston still carry battle wounds, it was not a "Big Whoopee" to any of us. You are speaking English and not German because we fought and died for your "Big Whoopee." A lot of us veterans would love to know who you are so that we could show you the door to another country that does not have the freedoms you call "Big Whoopee." I read Mr. Smith's letter, did you? I don't believe you can read if you did. He said nothing about your religion even though you personally attacked him, sniper-style, from the secrecy of SpeakOut. That makes you a coward. Yet you said he attacked your religion. How could he? You didn't have the guts to sign your name.

You sound like a religious nut to me. I served with a few of those guys. They always complained about the chow, the commander, the fight and on and on and on. They were the last to show up for battle and the first to go to get a band-aid for a splinter wound while the rest of us fought on.

We fought for the constitutional rights of the people of the United States. And, that is the very thing you attacked in your article when you used character assassination to try to shut up Mr. Smith's freedom of speech. You must get all your news from some right wing religious TV station. By the way, have you been to Washington and met privately with the President? We would all like to know how you are soooo well informed.

Since you are so good at religious bashing as your article clearly shows, tell us about your relationship with God. Did you physically visit him? Did he audibly tell you that you are to be God's emissary on earth? Did you actually hear him say that all Democrats are bad, bad and bad? Did God verbally tell you to write SpeakOut and ask President Bush to say the Democrats have had their way, day and say and to get out of the way? If so, tell us the date. We want to know the time of God's appearance to you. Now don't stomp and scream and holler and choke to death before we get your answer. Again, I fought with Democrats and Republicans. The Democrats fought and died and did not cut and run unlike the religious nuts you represent in your article. And by the way, all of us were Christians. All of us prayed to the Lord Almighty. And, none of us hated the other for their political beliefs. Most of us liked Roosevelt, but some didn't. It didn't make any difference to us. We were comrades (You love that word, don't you) in arms fighting for America.

Another thing that bothered me was when you said you do not judge. Well, what about this little sentence. You said, "conniving, scheming rabble which is the National Democratic Party." Sounds pretty judgmental to me. Now, was that a lie, a misstatement or just over-zealousness. Which was it?

So, come on now. Do you have the strength of character to tell us who you are or not? Are you a religious nut? My friends and I are betting that you don't have the guts to go public because you would get sued if you signed your name. And, oh the embarrassment of such a fine upstanding individual such as yourself trying to destroy another's reputation would be more than someone like you could take. So, if you go public you can explain why you didn't have the guts to sign your first two pieces of trash. You sound brave on paper, don't you? Tell us who you are. Why not? I am sure all of Sikeston is waiting with baited breath to hear about the personal revelations you had with God and President Bush.

As a minister of the gospel, I was appalled to read the smear article against Mr. Buck Smith. What makes this SpeakOut article against Mr. Smith so bad is that the person writing it claims to be a Christian. Smearing another person's character, especially without identifying oneself, is bad enough; but to go to the great extent of hatred beyond words is another.

Just how far have we sunk as a society that people who call themselves Christians would do such a horrible thing to another person? Mr. Smith has been a Gideon speaker in our church and I have met him many times. I can tell you he is one of the most compassionate, kind and tender Christian men I have met in my long and lengthy ministry. He is a compelling speaker and my church wanted him back year after year after year because he was the best Gideon speaker we ever had. I wish he could come more often. He will always be welcomed at our church as the good man we know him to be.

I know he is a Christian because he could not possibly work as hard as he did as concerned as he is for others and not have the will of God in his heart. He and his wife traveled all over southeast Missouri raising money for the Gideon cause and he paid all of his expenses out of his own pocket. He wouldn't even allow our church members to buy Sunday lunch for he and his wife because he said he didn't want anyone to think that raising money for the Gideon cause was about him - it was about God and giving Bibles to our little fifth grade children.

The author of the SpeakOut piece is out of the will of God to hate and condemn Mr. Smith. If I know who you are, and I probably do, you need to get on your knees and beg God to forgive you for letting your ego, politics and hatred overwhelm your love for your fellow man. And, since you know that I probably know who you are, I did read Mr. Smith's article and I found absolutely nothing in it that was not Christian. I thought it was very good and well written. You have a problem with people you cannot control and want to control their opinions. This is America and others have the right to their God given opinion. It may not be your own but God may speak to them differently especially if you are out of the will of God with so much hatred as your article clearly shows.

I have read with great amazement the two SpeakOut "no-name" calls and the one signed letter to the editor by Buck Smith. The first call appeared Dec. 7, the letter appeared Dec. 19 and the last call appeared Dec. 27.

This began with the "no-name" call on December 7th in which the caller wanted our President to give a ridiculous speech about the Democrats. I do not hope, nor do I believe that our President would stoop to such a low and undignified position as to present such a speech as this to the American people.

In my opinion, Mr. Smith's letter of December 19th was written in a concerned effort to try and diffuse this type article from stirring up hate and division among the residents of Sikeston. We all know our residents are both Democrats and Republicans. This has always been true, but as Mr. Smith says, "we can agree to disagree" without becoming hate mongers toward the other party. Our city must remain united for the future benefit of all. I believe this was the essence of Mr. Smith's letter.

Then in response came the call to SpeakOut on December 27. MY!! I have never heard such an attack and hatred spewed out as the caller did to Mr. Smith. I have no way of knowing who the caller is but since there were several questions asked directly to Mr. Smith, I have a few. Is the caller an attorney? Did an attorney help the actual caller prepare his comments? Do you honestly think Mr. Smith would participate in an effort to sabotage the war on terrorists? Is there anything in Mr. Smith's letter that would lead you to believe that he is an atheist, left wing radical, Islamic Jihadist murderer, or Communist? The word Comrade implies Communist, doesn't it? Did you serve in the military as you imply? How many Republican hate letters did you write or support for the Democrat bashing when Clinton was in office?

In summation, I am not a Democrat or Republican. My ancestry is Democrat but I have not voted Democrat since Carter. I am a "Born Again" Christian. I served my time in the military. I do know Mr. Smith and know he is a Christian. He is concerned about this city and our nation.

Mr. Smith is none of the things you imply he is, except a Democrat. He has many friends in Sikeston who know this to be true. He has helped many people in the Sikeston area. In his letter he rightfully stated that he would be personally attacked and he was. What a shame!!

Maybe it would be a good idea to print again the SpeakOut call of Dec. 7, Mr. Smith's letter of Dec. 19 and the SpeakOut call of Dec. 27. This would let the residents of Sikeston decide which one of the two is most concerned about Sikeston and our Great United States.

Oh, and Mr. Smith did not ask me to write this.

Thomas Jefferson was a "True Democrat" not a Socialist just hiding behind the Democrat banner. To you lefties who love to quote Jefferson to bolster your claim that Jefferson did not want "Christian Principles" interring into the thoughts and affairs of American Government office holders, and public servants, listen up. From Thomas Jefferson, whose quotes you so regularly misstate and twist to fit your twisted agenda, I quote, "The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme Being as his Father, in the womb of a virgin will be classified with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter. But we may hope that the dawn of reason and freedom of thought in these United States will do away with that artificial scaffolding and restore to us the primitive and genuine doctrines of the most venerated Reformer of human errors, Jesus Christ." --Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration of Independence, 3rd US President Source: (Letter to John Adams, April 11, 1823)

When a Liberal Democrat talks of freedom of writing, and speaking, I can only laugh. Or, become angry. No such thing exists in the mind of a Liberal Democrat. Their idea of liberty or their definition of "Liberalism" is to be the arbiters of who has a right to true liberty and freedom. Their general rule of thumb is, if is conservative, Christian or Republican, it's evil, corrupt, hate-

filled and dangerous. Therefore, that speech or writing, or thinking should be discouraged. They have appointed themselves to be the monitors and controllers of the rights of others. They regard only speech, ideas or writing that reinforces their world view. To them those are the only 'sacred' rights that exist. Their tactic is to make examples, outcasts, even criminals if possible, anyone, or anything that opposes them and their agenda.