The American Spectator

First, the letter by Diane Smith. She writes of a piece that she has saved out of the MSM of years past. It speaks of Sens. Jesse Helms and Bill Bradley. The article speaks of two “gentlemen.” That is an interesting word. There are very few “gentlemen” left in our society. Jesse Helms was the consummate Southern Gentleman. Like Diane, I am old enough to have been raised to understand that term, in all its implications. I was also raised to value very highly the qualities embodied in being a Southern Gentleman. I was taught that one could not always be among the wealthy, but that one could always strive to be a “gentleman,” and that wealth had nothing to do with whether one was, or was not, a gentleman. Sen. Bradley was also a gentleman. Just not a “Southern Gentleman.” There really is a bit of a difference. I miss Jesse Helms with an equal fervor to my morning of the loss of Ronald Reagan. Our country is much the poorer because we no longer seem to value the qualities of gentlemanliness. Of course, as Mr. Hillyer would say, I am just having a temper tantrum. By the way, Quin, name-calling is NOT one of the things that “gentlemen” engage in.

p>Second, are the letters by A Reader, and Mr. Kessel regarding Obama and his words about faith. I had the same reaction as these writers to the portions of a speech by Obama, and what they mean. My attention to the real meaning of the words uttered by speakers, particularly of the political variety, that I was taught, was reinforced during the Clinton years. I understand that any sales pitch simply must be parsed very closely, lest we be deluded to buy into a pig in a poke. No matter how much lipstick you put on the pig represented by the Obama illusions to a Christian faith, it is still a pig. I have also learned during this election cycle that entirely too many conservative Christian fundamentalists and Evangelicals seem to be going out of their way to be deceived. As Rush Limbaugh so often says, “Words mean things.” The meaning does not change simply because we may want it to. Pay attention to the meaning of the words used. That is what is called common sense, another scarce commodity today. br> — Ken Shreve /p>