Dear Editor,

The letter of Mr. Jeffrey Carlson of 19 March cannot be allowed to stand without rebuttal. If the President is “the most patriotic leader” in this country’s history, I’m Rootie Kazootie. Mr. Trump has no ideology except his own advancement and material profit. He will say anything that makes the crowd roar. He seems to be doing his best to destroy everything that has made the United States a respected model to most of the world. He is crippling our State Department, the body that has done the most to keep us out of wars, by firing a large number of the people who actually know how the world works, and this for no reason except a blind and ignorant wish to do damage. His proposed budget is simply horrid in terms of American traditional, and by the way Christian, values. “His philanthropic attitudes?” Good grief. He may have agreed to do without the presidential salary, but he has in two months spent more of the taxpayers’ money than Barack Obama did in either of his four-year terms. And taken more vacation days to boot.

Mr. Carlson needs to crawl out of his dark tangle of conspiracy theories. Terrible plots of Obama and Clinton? Come on! Give it up and move on (as we Democrats are constantly told). None of that was true in the first place, and to bring it forth now as proof of some imagined horrors deserves no one’s credence. He seems to reject as “lies” anything he disagrees with.

Mass media vary. One source is reliable, checks its facts, admits to mistakes and corrects them, and distinguishes opinion from rumors. Another just passes on gossip. Some have a particular bias; others try to avoid bias. If you get all your news from Facebook, you should be aware that it filters out the things you “like” until it determines what you want to hear, and goes on to feed you just that.

A citizen has a duty to study these things, think about them, and use judgement. Freedom of the press and of opinion has kept us free since the beginning; one of the first actions of a rising dictator is to destroy faith in all news sources that contradict him.

Be careful with the term “treasonous”, Mr. Carlson. This is, so far at least, a democracy, and we are all entitled to our opinions. Opposition is not treason.

Sincerely,

Dr. Karen L. Black,

Warren