The American Spectator

I am writing you in response to an article recently published on your site by Mark Judge concerning Ann Coulter’s attack on four 9/11 widows and the widows’ subsequent use of inappropriate imagery to score political points. As a moderate myself, I find it very disturbing that those on the far left, and those on the far right, fail to recognize the hypocrisy in their own arguments and actions.

Mr. Judge pointed out other persons in their own tragedies such as a man who lost his daughter on the PanAm bombing or Mr. Judge himself losing his father to cancer, as persons who responded appropriately to their loss. What Mr. Judge failed to note is that no family member of the victims of the Lockerbie attack and surely not Mr. Judge himself was ever accused of enjoying the death of their loved one.

I would love to see Mr. Judge respond to accusations that he reveled during his father’s suffering, knowing that it was only a matter of weeks before he would get a big fat insurance payment as a result of his father succumbing to the disease. Any person, including Mr. Judge, would have lashed out at the accuser and in doing so, likely would have used “colorful” imagery in order to get sympathy.

Personally, I find nothing wrong with the 9/11 widows’ response to Ms. Coulter’s accusations. They were unfairly and viciously attacked. Their response was a human, instinctual response — make people feel more sorry for me by reminding them that I watched my husband burn alive. Look it up in a psychology book.

Ms. Coulter and many of the folks on the far right are guilty of the same tactics. Ms. Coulter makes outrageous statements, viciously attacks her critics, all for a specific intent. To get people to listen to her. No one would listen to a tall, skinny, blonde-haired babe discuss politics unless she made inflammatory comments. Which she does repeatedly.

So you see, Mr./Ms. Editor, you and those like you on the far right, and persons such as Howard Dean and John Kerry on the far left, are all guilty of using personal attacks, slander, absurdity, etc., in order to tout political viewpoints.

Most Americans like myself, who try to listen to all points of view, who make compromises, who use logic to arrive at solutions, we are tired of the divisive tactics that the right and their friends on the left use to build support for their respective parties. Instead of scoring political points for your team, (you know like raising the terror threat level the day after the 2004 Democratic National Convention — hmm that must have just been a coincidence), we in the center ask that you fight for the American people, and actually do something to help the country you represent instead of helping the party you represent.

p>Although liberals and conservatives will likely never share the same point of view on political matters, we can rest easy knowing that they do share one common trait — hypocrisy. br> — Stephen Sboray br> Virginia /p>

I found the the commentary by Mark Gauvreau Judge on the 9/11 widows to be as callous and heartless as Ann Coulter’s characterizations were.

Politics aside, people deal with grief in different ways. Not often is it seen in a press release, but the feelings and comments of the widows were genuine. Adding political statements to the comments only reinforce the shortcomings that still exist in our entire government structure in dealing with security issues. September 11 may not have been able to be prevented, but a lack of foresight on the previous 20 years allowed it to.

The current administration would like the American public to think that the war on terror has nothing to do with September 11, though they invoke it at every opportunity. It is the excuse they use for every aspect of our foreign policy. It strangles the innovation in this country to deal with the real issues of concern to the American people by dedicating resources to policies that have no chance of changing minds or hearts.