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Debatable Opinions; Letters to the Editor

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As I virtually move around The FUSA by state in alphabetical order, trying to find letters to the editor that are, indeed, debatable, I come to Arkansas.

 

However, one can imagine my anxiety about looking in Arkansas for a letter to the editor of a print/online newspaper.  When many of us think about Arkansas, we think about the “uncle daddy” jokes and the word “redneck”.  I confess to being a person who’s made such stereotypical remarks in the past.

 

Consequently, I had the offense ready to go.  I knew that I would find a letter to shred to pieces.

 

As an aside, I’d like to make a couple of points about looking around the country for letters to the editor.

 

First, I really don’t know which newspapers are the most read newspapers in most states.  As a guide, I use LISTS: Sanjeev.NET  List of wonderful things.  This site seems to have the newspapers in any given state listed in, if no other manner, order of popularity.

 

Secondly, to put it mildly, I imagine that people have found much of what I’ve written “debatable”.  My goal isn’t necessarily to find letters with which I strongly disagree, although, if I continue with this search, my suspicion is that I will utilize such letters most often. 

This column will no doubt be longer than the past couple of columns.  Before I get into what was written in the letter to the editor, I think that it’s import for me to explain my political leaning and my thoughts about what happened on September 11, 2001.  There is another issue, the American flag, which I should address as well before revealing the content of the letter. 

I don’t think it would be a surprise to anyone who’s ever read anything I’ve written that I lean to the left.  I’m a Progressive and I’m proud of it. 

On the other hand, I was born and raised in The United States of America and that means much more to me than being a Progressive.

 

I’m what’s called a Truther.  A Truther is a person who finds it difficult to believe the story that The Regime and the corporate media have given us about who was behind what happened on September 11, 2001.  There are degrees of Truthers.  Some think that they know exactly what alternatively happened on 9/11 and others merely want a new, fair investigation into the tragedy of September 11, 2001. 

We want an investigation in which no members of the investigation team are tied to The Regime in any way.  The example that comes to mind is Philip Zelikow.  Zelikow was the executive director of the 9-11 Commission.  Before that, Zelikow served on the team that helped The Bush Administration, a misnomer for The Regime, transition into the White House.  Many people see this as a definite conflict of interest. 

There of course should be no one on the committee who would describe himself or herself as a 9/11 Truther, either.  Fair is fair and that’s what many of us want, a fair investigation. 

We want an investigation in which all who are called to testify are forced, in one way or another, to do so.  Not only are they forced to testify, but they are forced to testify in public and under oath. 

We want an investigation into this horrendous mass murder to start by asking the question, “Who did it?”, as most murder investigations do.  Everyone is innocent until proven guilty, but no one should be innocent and exempt from ever being proven guilty. 

Truthers are as appalled and saddened at what happened on 9/11 as those who believe the official narrative.  I don’t think any of us were born with the intention of hating George Bush, which, because of our questioning, we’ve been accused of.  However, if we were to have the kind of investigation described above and found that our government was in no way complicit in planning the events of 9/11 nor did it know what was going to happen on that day, but simply ignored it, I’d be happier than if the opposite was proven.  I no more want to know that the American Government would do such a thing than anyone else. 

I felt it necessary to write the long introduction because one can imagine how pumped up a Progressive reporter might become if he sees a letter entitled “Do Americans forget so easily” in an Arkansas newspaper, The Lanoke Democrat, part of The Cabot Star Herald group.  Even more provocative was the first sentence of the letter which reads, “As I was driving through Lonoke this morning, Sept. 11, 2008, I was very disappointed that NO businesses in Lonoke had their U.S. flags out on display.”  I was ready and continued to read. 

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Michael Bonanno is an associate editor for OpEdNews.

He is also a published poet, essayist and musician who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Bonanno is a political progressive, not a Democratic Party apologist. He believes it's (more...)
 

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