Stan Kanter, Jackass

Ok, ok, ok. It's my anniversary and I said I wouldn't be posting anymore tonight, but I read a letter to the editor that appeared in the Herald on Wednesday and I couldn't back off.

Stan Kanter, a self-described "staunch Republican" from Mapleton, Utah wrote the following letter under a headline reading "Anderson's anti-Bush rant embarrased every Utahn":

I guess I can best by affiliation be described as a Reagan conservative, as well as a staunch Republican.

I take umbrage with the lousy reporting in the two articles on President Bush's visit. In the first, it was supposed to be about Bush's arrival in Utah; however, after a paragraph or so, it honed in on Rocky Anderson, albeit the other article was also about Rocky Anderson.

As far as I and many of my friends and neighbors are concerned, Anderson is an embarrassment to the great state of Utah. He is a malevolent individual who has degraded the office of mayor and is a traitor to our great nation. Only a demented and depraved individual would make the kind of malicious remarks about the president of the United States, a man whom I greatly admire and totally support.

Anderson's vociferous diatribe were a humiliation to every resident of Utah as he embarrassed himself and his office in front of the whole world.

Stan Kanter,

Mapleton

Here is my response:

I just couldn't help it:

In response to Stan Kanter's Letter to the Editor from September 6, I would like to say that I believe Stan Kanter and his friends and neighbors are an embarrassment to America and Democracy. Mr. Kanter described Rocky Anderson as a traitor to the nation for voicing valid and, according to Bush's approval ratings, popular opinions about the "president" and his handling of the situation against the "threats" to our nation.

To say that a man who has voiced his opinion, regardless of his office, is an embarrassment and a traitor is against the very tenets of democracy and American idealism.

Further, Mr. Kanter describes those who would question the questionable and despicable actions of the Bush administration as demented and depraved. I would put the shoe on the other foot, as it were. I would describe someone who would support a man who condones torture, the reduction of personal privacy, squelching of opposing opinion, pre-emptive, immoral war and fear mongering, demented and depraved.

Mr. Kanter, perhaps you and your "stanuch republican" neighbors should go back and read up on your history of dissent in the context of American freedom and our ideals of a democratic society. You might learn why Utah should be proud of Rocky Anderson and why America should be disappointed in your disgust at the outpouring of public opinion contrary to yours.

Bryan Young,
http://thisdividedstate.blogspot.com

I'll let you know if they print it.