THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, May 30, 1995 TAG: 9505270002
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 43 lines
Congratulations on once again portraying Pat Robertson, militia members and all else who dare question what our government might be up to as religious zealots or paranoid flakes.
At the risk of being similarly branded, I submit that their suspicions are reasonable, given the countless events that government officials have been involved in that completely defy logic or run counter to American ideals.
I would also place them among the precious few thinking, concerned citizens; rather than with the many sheep who blindly accept as gospel anything their political party or the mainstream media broadcasts or prints.
The Bay of Pigs; the Kennedy assassination/Warren Commission cover-up; sending our troops into deadly combat hamstrung by ridiculous ``rules of engagement''; the gas ``crisis''; our selective concern for human rights whereby we invade Banana Republics yet ``punish'' the worst violators (China and Russia) by showering them with foreign aid and most-favored-nation trade status; the savings-and-loan scandal; innocent kids poisoned and incinerated in Waco using a gas that is so horrible we've outlawed its use against our enemies in wartime; our ``conservative'' speaker of the house who endorses the writings of the socialist Alvin Toffler; the constant barrage of proclamations that we are now ``global'' citizens and should abandon our ``silly'' notion of national sovereignty.
These are but a few of many events that bewilder even the most rational among us. But rather than obediently falling in line beside the politically correct and pretending nothing's amiss, the ``nuts'' at least have the courage to take an unpopular stand and, contrary to the images your writers attempt to convey, most are just ordinary people who are greatly and genuinely saddened to see their children and their country sinking into the abyss of socialism; not trigger-happy misfits looking for an excuse to chamber a round.
D. W. BECKWITH
Virginia Beach, May 11, 1995 by CNB