Regarding the column “Can’t We All Just Get Along, or at Least Be Civil?” published June 14: As a Bristol Herald Courier reader of many years, the idea of J. Todd Foster committing plagiarism is absurd. I’ve never known the Herald Courier or its staff to do anything dishonest or improper. These kinds of attacks are over the line.
The Jef Roberts case is a good point. The facts are Roberts was drunk, had a long record as a belligerent drunk, was in poor health, got into a bar fight and died by accident. There was no intention to kill him. Yet the conspiracy theories and unfounded attacks on the Herald Courier are irrational. They owe Mr. Thatch and the BHC an apology.
I’ve accused the Herald Courier myself in this column of bias on several issues, but in no manner do I suggest any dishonesty. It’s a cultural bias that many educated white-collar professionals share. The BHC staff and reader advisory panel seems to lean progressive overall and I don’t believe that is an accident, but they are still decent people.
Progressives believe environmentalism (a social/religious movement) is good for us regardless of cost, science or anything else. And they seem to believe the totalitarian nanny-state is better than individual freedom. Progressives don’t represent blue-collar working class values and seem to hold them in contempt. Progressives are not mindless robots nor do they agree on everything.
What right do progressives (or the Religious Right) have to impose their cultural beliefs on the rest of us? That is where a lot of the tension and anger stems from. When a newspaper inserts itself into politics and takes sides on issues they often know nothing about, is it unfair to call them on it or question their motives? It’s equally unfair to expect to agree 100 percent on most issues.
Mr. Foster is right, at least we can be civil. For the record, I’m a liberal and proud of it.
Lewis Loflin
Bristol, Tenn.
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