Editor,
What I find most breathtaking about the tornado of political letters that Patrick Sundstrom regularly starts is that people respond to him rather than to the majority of readers who probably find his words inflammatory, dishonest, and insulting. This letter is for those people who are tired of his regular insults.
First off, it is difficult for us to take Sundstrom seriously, even when he makes an occasionally valid argument, because he takes ordinary people and casts labels on them whether they attacked him or not. In his latest letter he states that people who go to college actually are going through “indoctrination.” Most professors have little time to spew leftist propaganda because they have an actual plan to spend the semester teaching topics like logic/reasoning or history.
Even non-college history classes can provide us with the information to counter Sundstrom’s inaccuracies. Most people are taught in high school that the word “fascism” has little to do with what the terrorists are employing today to further their cause. While Sundstrom is quick to call out that Bush is not Hitler, he does not understand how equally horrific and inaccurate his comparision is of “fascist” terrorists hiding in mountainous caverns in Afghanistan (or lurking in quiet urban neighborhoods in London) to the fascist armies of WWII Germany and Italy.
Using the images of the destruction caused by these mega armies to scare Americans for political gain is wrong–whether from the left or the right. With these scare tactics, the terrorists do not have to control us with their own actions because people like Patrick Sundstrom are all too quick to point out for people in Emery County that they are in imminent danger. He is wrong to act in this manner. He is also wrong to insinuate that spying on Americans now is normal and that it would be okay to detain large numbers of Muslim Americans as the government did to Japanese Americans during WWII. No. This is not the same kind of war.
Rest assured that there is no chance of a large army of “Islamic fascists” taking over America. None. If the strong United States cannot even take control of violence in a country like Iraq, do you honestly think that any of us would be less reactive to a wimpy occupying force here? Don’t let this ridiculous fear control you. We won’t let it happen. There are currently other more pressing issues.
While Sundstrom may appear well versed in the First Amendment, he is not apt to speak out against Bush’s obliteration of the Fourth and Fifth Amendments. Do supposed federalists like Sundstrom know that every governor in the United States opposed on Feb. 2 Bush’s killing 130-year-old posse comitatus? Do they care about 790-year-old habeas corpus or about Bush’s month-old executive order of July 17 “Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq”.
Can the government take my possessions just because I disagree with this war and wrote this letter? That is not America.
Many people do not know what these terms mean, but everyone has a duty to know about these actions and how they affect our country and constitution.
Sundstrom is as guilty as those who oppose him of picking and choosing pieces that suit his purpose. He has his usual scary enemies that he always brings up as if he is sending a Fox News form letter to the Progress once a month. For once, I would like him to watch and listen to a real left-wing media source to see just how right the mainstream media truly is. Just once, I would like him to cite some pro-religion lawsuits that the ACLU has fought for. And maybe just for a second, I would like him to consider that the separation of church and state is as much about keeping religion out of government as it is about keeping government out of religion.
Many Utahns are counted among the last supporters of this administration. Most other people think that Bush falls somewhere between a failure and a traitor. No matter where you stand on this President, I would implore those of you who still support his neoconservative war agenda to reconsider your stance. And please stop accusing people like me and my family, who have served in the Middle East and Central Asia, of somehow being traitors full of “cowardice and sedition.”
Many of those people who still support what I consider to be anti-Constitutional and anti-freedom policies carried out by this administration might not fear their reach yet, but when a powerful Democratic President takes office and stretches too far, will you still have a voice? We have to stand watch and call out each and every one of our public officials–left, right, or center–on their errors.
The issue that we all seem to be bickering over is about more than the current political climate. It is about making the government accountable to its people and recognizing that we still believe that all people are created equally–whether they have a fancy gold-embossed bald eagle on their passports or not.
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