FRIDAY'S LETTERS: Joe Strupp Fights the Good Fight on Gay Marriage, Red Hot Coulter, Mitchell in a Time Warp

By: E&P Staff In today's letters, a reader expresses appreciation for Joe Strupp's defense of gay marriage, Ann Coulter raises hackles and wins some support in her trashing of the 9/11 widows, and a reader takes issue with Greg Mitchell's comparing the Vietnam and Iraq wars.


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Strupp Fighting the Good Fight

I would like to thank [Joe Strupp] for the excellent piece [he] wrote for Editor & Publisher on gay rights and the responsibilities of newspapers in reporting on the issue.

Like [Strupp], I am not gay, but my son is and I know how hurt he was when the country seemed to turn against him during the last election. I believe that the American Psychiatric Association, the American Medical Association, the American bar and numerous scientists are absolutely right when they say that homosexuality is a condition one is born with and not a sign of moral depravity and I certainly do not agree with the religious fanatics who think you can "pray it away." I had one minister actually suggest to me that I should tell my son that he is a sinner and bound for Hell if he doesn't change, that I would not be a good father if I didn't do so. What kind of father would tell his own son that he does not accept him for who he is? To me that very suggestion is evil.

Our country has a regrettable history of discrimination and abuse toward minorities. We mistreated women, we mistreated the Jews, we mistreated the Indians, the blacks and now it is simply the same old evil rearing it's ugly head with a different victim.

Our only hope for this sadly deteriorating world is our press. I can't thank [Strupp] enough for reminding [his] readers of the magnitude of their moral obligations to society.

Ron Coleman


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Red Hot Coulter

This is a mean-spirited, ferocious being, totally self-absorbed and intent only upon making piles of money using shock value to promote herself. She SHOULD BE widely denounced by the so-called "Christians" who claim God is their leader. (As we fight and die to promote a civil authority in Iraq free of religious domination.) Instead, her trash is selling making her tons of money and the Rightist Republicans accept her as their own. Shame on anyone who supports this evil woman.

Dee M. Nickel
Woodstock, Ga.



I have yet to read Ann Coulter's new book, but I cannot wait to do so. As far as her comments about the 9/11 wives, people have the right to not appreciate them. However, I understand what she is talking about and I would suspect that all liberals do as well. That is probably what is most disturbing to them. Ann never said she didn't feel their pain after losing their husbands, but she does criticize their willingness to support liberal candidates and be able to be used by the liberal media, just as Cindy Sheehan is. We all know what is going on here -- Democrats put these people on the news to stir up controversy and think nobody can respond because of their tragedy. Well, she responded.

Thomas Anconetani



Though I may not agree with the "delivery" method, I agree with Ms. Coulter. You may not believe it, but she does speak for the majority of the "silent minority". We are those [who] don't go to cocktail parties, hobnob with the Hollywood elite, or get invited to political fundraisers.

We are those [who] send and support our young in the military, who want equality for all those that are here legally, and raise our young to be honest and respectful (and keep their pants on their hips, not half-way downtown).

When you step out into the public arena, and speak your opinion (whether it is in agreement or not) on public matters, you don't have the right to hide behind the issue that you are speaking out about (i.e.. the 9/11 ladies). To hide behind the issue is cowardly, even disrespectful. It is like demanding the other party listen to a one-sided argument, and not being allowed to respond.

I have the deepest respect for the loss of these ladies -- their speaking out doesn't diminish that. Many others have lost loved ones on 9/11 and after, and have spoken with a different point of view.

But for these ladies to hide behind their loss -- and to use it as a shield -- is wrong.

Tom Baal



As much as I despise Ann Coulter, if the establishment media had been less concerned with being PC and addressed the sense of entitlement many 9/11 victims have displayed with respect to how the WTC attack is to be memorialized, how much they should be compensated, etc., then Coulter wouldn't have been able to leap into the void and frame the story in the despicable way she did. I don't have the slightest doubt that the widows' grief is real, but when they and other victims' families entered the political fray, the issues they advocated and the sanctimonious way they sought to advance their agenda, became a legitimate subject for discussion. Instead, the pols and the media have treated them like sacred cows, so can you blame Coulter for jumping in and saying, albeit tactlessly, what many of us have been thinking?

Sam Adler
New York, N.Y.


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Let's Not Do the Time Warp Again

[Greg Mitchell really is] stuck in a time warp. I guess [he does] remember that we were out of Vietnam, the South was holding its own when the Congress withdrew support, giving the signal to the North Vietnamese Army (not the Viet Cong) to invade and take over in violation of the Paris Accords.

Of course, [he also remembers] that argument from so many, that the Vietnamese really didn't care, they wanted peace or in the alternative, they were just peasants who would welcome communism. As I recall, when we were there, there were no boat people. You do remember the massacre at Hue? Probably not!

Why not ask Kim, who now lives in New England what she thinks. Her mother and sister were killed by the North Vietnamese when they illegally took over Saigon.

But what the hell! Why bother with the reality of today, where as I write this, the world is rejoicing over the death of some guy named [Zarqawi] and as a momentous event in Iraqi democracy occurred. It is much better to wallow in the past of a president who really stole elections, lied about his military service and postured as a candidate for peace!

This is one Vietnam veteran (USA 1969-1970) who has seen the press turn victories into defeat. (Here is where I might mention Tet of '68)

H. Michael Sarkisian
Sacramento, Calif.