Dear Editor:
I appreciate the “advice” by Bill Filice (April 25), who says I should not insult or offend people in my letters. However, if we go through life worrying about offending people, nothing would ever be accomplished. And polite sheep become doormats.
(1) To protest and to publicly call political opponents “scum” are rights “protected by the Constitution.” Mr. Filice needs to please explain how one is “senseless” while the other merits a “so be it.” I did not attack their right to protest; I attacked their cause. And I also never saw, nor stated that I saw, “a group of people on the corner of 10th and Monterey streets protesting a recent issue.” That was in someone else’s letter, Bill.
(2) Mr. Filice states, “Our own parents and grandparents were immigrants.” They came legally. They were not on welfare. They learned English.
Take a look at the old photos, Bill: Which flag do you see therein? Although the pictures are black and white, it is not difficult to tell the colors are not red, white, and green. There is a chasm of difference between those who come here legally and those who come illegally; please do not shame the memory of our ancestors by putting the two groups in equal regard!
(3) Mr. Filice “wonders what the dickens happened to me.” I used to argue politics respectfully and be a “gentleman”; it got my property repeatedly vandalized, me threatened, and a bullet in my wall. I find most modern “gentlemen” to be nothing but finger-pointing, holier-than-thou whiners.
I used to respect and trust law enforcement; it landed me in jail. I used to have faith in the courts; then I found out, first hand, that justice needs to be bought and is never served. I used to believe in the draft; then I found out that the last time it was used, non-elites were sent to fight an undeclared war that they were not allowed to win. I used to think the taxes I paid went to something worthwhile; then I found out said money pays for abortions, for welfare and tuition for illegal immigrants, for schools that are no more than detention and indoctrination centers, for frivolities to the few (such as the local cultural center to-be), for pornographic “art,” and for wasted military intervention in silly ethnic conflicts abroad.
“Tolerance and peace” are not “keys to a better world” but are part of a better world when they are byproducts of freedom (worth its weight in blood).
Coerced peace, on the other hand, is a frightening possibility if empowered were the “leaders” favored by those whom I insulted. Senza compianto.
Alan Viarengo, Gilroy
