The American Spectator

Reader Mail

(Page 6 of 16)

br> Re: George Neumayr's Fundamentalist Outreach and Shawn Macomber's In the Life of One Good Man : /p>

Definitely made MY day. Dead-Eye George demonstrates he's been honing his skills at the Jed Babbin Gun Club as evidenced by this ten-ringer: "What if they extended to Christianity the tolerant understanding they extend to Islam? Maybe from time to time the Democrats could refer to Christianity as a religion of peace."

p>I have this image of him leaning back from his keyboard, blowing smoke from the business end of a Colt Peacemaker and twirling it prior to a deft holster plant. br> -- Doc Watson /p>

Shawn Macomber's piece juxtaposing John Ritter, decent "Everyman," and Yasser Arafat, terrorist, provides an opportunity to comment on the impact of one element, indeed one single word, from the election that seems to be dreadfully missing from the post-election analyses. Senator Kerry's characterization of returning to a state where the occasional terrorist act could be seen as a "nuisance" did more to mobilize me than any other element of the campaign. The behavior of Arafat and his ilk prior to September 11, 2001 was NOT merely a nuisance; it was willful murder of innocents. That any serious candidate for the presidency could consider it anything less changed my whole outlook on getting involved in the campaign.

I live in a bright red county within an intensely blue state (See Lawrence Henry's excellent piece in today's selections.) We did not carry California for President Bush, but we made sure that the phones rang; the emails went out; the follow-up happened. Friends and family in other states were contacted. All were encouraged to do whatever it took to go to the polls. We'll never know just what was the impact because much of it is buried in the overall color blue. However, there were a bunch of down-ballot issues and candidates that got red votes from folks who otherwise might have stayed home.

p>Nuisance... I don't think so! And, I suspect a significant portion of 59 million of my fellow citizens don't think so either. br> --

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