Ellen M. McClung

To the editor,

Last month my husband and I were widely criticized in your paper for taking a potshot at Rush Limbaugh. One response our letter generated said I was unqualified to teach. This really hit me hard, as I have MS and have largely given up teaching due to cognitive problems cause by the MS. (For those who don't care for my politics I might add that this does not mean I'm stupid!)

I found it was very disconcerting to be judged so harshly by people who don’t know me at all, and who assume I have pre-packaged politics. I would have preferred to just cower and keep my mouth shut, but as the Bible says, “what we know we shall be held accountable for. (It also warns about people who quote scripture to forward their own agenda. This could be true for me OR for George W. Bush.)

So here goes…

In the July 12, 2004 issue of Newsweek on pages 16 and 17 there are five letters about Michael Moore’s movie Fahrenheit 9/11. The letters come from quite a variety of people: GOP, Dems, people who have seen the movie, and those who probably rejected it without seeing it, out of hand, because of their assumptions about Michael Moore. I would ask that everybody read these letters, ask yourself some hard questions about the authors, and. if you are so moved, please go and see this movie!

We have all seen the events addressed in Fahrenheit 911 unfold and we should at least judge this objectively. and not be swayed by prejudices and assumption. Because what we know (and we have access to a great deal of info these days); we, the American troops in Iraq, and future generations might be held accountable for someday. This is a life and death matter.

As one of the Newsweek letters point out, if the movie was full of lies, Michael Moore would have been sued. It is no longer a matter of what we want to believe, the stakes have gone up and now it is a matter of what we know. Propaganda can not go as far as it used to in this modern age of information.

Ellen M. McClung

Gilford