To the editor:
George Allen’s letter to the Daily Journal May 25 (“Reader frustrated with columnists in newspaper”) focused on his frustrations with some of its featured opinion writers, namely John Krull and David Carlson. On the 30th, Mr. Allen was back again (“Trump haters filling Opinion pages”) pleading for “a break” from the “errant…revenge campaigners” who “foment hate and discontent towards our President Trump.”
Meaning no disrespect to their “academese,” Mr. Allen gives them way too much credit, Trump clearly is the “Fomentor in Chief;” all others are amateurs. Allen states that Trump is giving him, and presumably all of us, the country back.
He doesn’t bother with specifics or tell us where our country was all this time, but rather rails against imagined slights from Trump’s predecessor. He goes on to berate David Carlson for liking “the suspense of wondering whom Americans will elect into office,” implying only Republicans are fit to hold office especially in Johnson County where “Democrats fear to tread.”
I suggest Mr. Allen expand his circle of acquaintances and while it may not be a hotbed of liberalism, there are many fine Democrats (and Republicans) in Johnson County, though I admit that for us Dems, our devils horns can be off-putting to those who don’t really know us.
And he needs to remember that without the Democrats’ loyal opposition, the Republicans wouldn’t have anything they could agree on.
Mr. Allen speaks of the Democrats’ “public revenge campaign against President Trump” by citing a single incident of misguided graffiti in Bean Blossom.
At the risk of going tit for tat, he might want to familiarize himself with the recent pair of stabbing deaths of men in Portland, Oregon attempting to defend two women from the racist and xenophobic diatribe of a deranged self-proclaimed “patriot” on a train there. I would like to think and certainly hope that neither episode is a reflection of any political party’s values.
In his previous rant, Mr. Allen seemed to be solely capable of determining who possesses common sense by having his finger on the pulse of public opinion. Now, apparently only he can divine who “true Americans” are. Clearly those exercising their right to peacefully assemble and raise their voices in opposition don’t meet the grade.
In his closing, he speaks of flushing unwelcome influences out of the system and frankly I get lost in his swirl of thought. But I would like for Mr. Allen to cheer up and once again get over his frustrations, whatever they may be, because true Americans will still love him and respect his right to voice them, “academese” or not.
Ron Ping
Bargersville
