Proud to be a free American

By Larry Carter Green River

Dear Editor,
I debated as to writing this opinion letter due to my experience with the media in the past. I am a Vietnam Veteran and while serving my country found the media to be a very unfriendly profession to the soldiers who were fighting for their freedom. The soldiers who fought were, in their minds, serving their country with their very lives, but came back to find anger and resentment against them due to the media coverage. I don’t know of any one that was in that war that didn’t come back with either a mental, physical or emotional issue.
Now for my opinion Patsy Stoddard wrote an article on Nov. 9, stating “Emery County what have you done?”, and Rick Shaw wrote one on Nov. 16, defending her right to publish her opinion. Ms. Stoddard’s article was by editor, and Mr. Shaw’s was by publisher. My point is their articles were 985 words and 819 words while those who took the time to respond followed the guidelines of the opinion page of 350 words. A few went over but Mr. Geary’s was 283 words, Mr. Johnson was 408 words and Mr. and Mrs. Dellos was 294 words. Why don’t we all have basically the same rules, so that we stand on level ground?
As a veteran I took the right to vote very seriously, and to have someone insult my right makes me reflect on the days right after Vietnam. What gives you the right to question my decision or any other individual’s decision when it comes to an election? You over stepped your position and you need to apologize to this county. I was proud to see that approximately 60 percent of Emery County voted. Did you not see that all but one area in this whole county voted for Mr. Funk by majority, so please remember what elections stand for and not degrade our God given right of “For the people by the people.” This should have meaning to you, so shame on you because this is the way we do things in Emery County.
Editor’s note: I place no word restrictions in letters to the editor.