Posted by Michael J. Stanek on Friday, May 15, 2009 1:45:04 AM (TO VIEW THE 300-WORD FORMAT OF THIS MESSAGE, PLEASE VISIT THE BEACON'S HOMEPAGE. ALSO, SHOW YOUR SUPPORT FOR THEIR CANDOR IN PUBLISHING MY LETTER TO THE EDITOR BY SUBSCRIBING TO THEIR PUBLICATION. THEY SHOWED THEY ARE FAIR AND BALANCED BY RUNNING MY REPLY): http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/beaconnews/news/opinions/letters/1571959,2_4_AU14_LETTERS_S1.article
The following is the FULL letter to Jeffrey Ward and the Batavia Sun Newspaper Editorial Board, in response to Ward's completely and utterly disrespectful, disparagement-filled opinion piece that marred the May 6th issues of the Batavia, and Geneva, IL "Sun" Newspapers, as well as the "Beacon News" out of St. Charles. Ward's piece can be viewed in its entirety here:
http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/beaconnews/news/ward/1555570,2_4_AU03_WARD_S1.article
In response to the article that ran in those publications, my outrage was highlighted in the following open letter, which was editted down to fit the 300-word limit in the Letters to the Editor section. However, here is the full, original letter sent to Mr. Kim Williams, and various other addressees with the Sun and Beacon News:
In the Wednesday, May 6, 2009 publication, you ran an op-ed piece penned by Jeffrey Ward, who is apparently a fairl y liberal guy with liberal views, and I completely and wholly understand that this man should certainly have the right to his personal opinions, as I am a liberty-loving American myself. However, when Mr. Ward resorted to personally attacking and assassinating the character of the brave men and women in our armed forces, and also the tax protestors who gathered outside the Kane County Government Center on tax day, I think your publication made a terrible mistake in running the piece. This sentiment is not without good evidence of his being out of line. You see, Mr. Ward accused our armed forces of engaging in the act of torture when he said, "If you still believe we don't torture detainees, you might as well buy the GOP's absurd assertion...[blah blah blah blah]." He mocked the fact that this was an event that was put together in only a matter of a couple of weeks by writing "grass roots" just as I have here in quotes-obviously to make people think that this was some kind of faked event paid for by high donors. Being there, I can tell you that it was certainly not bankrolled by any corporate bigwigs. This was as home-made as a slice of apple pie- something that Mr. Ward might be abhorred by, seeing as it has a traditional, patriotic underpinning to it.
I spoke at the Geneva, Illinois tax day tea party, and it was organized by some of the most humble, kind, and truly patriotic Americans I know. As a matter of fact, I was not even scheduled to speak at that event. No-I showed up because I had heard that the event was taking place, and I asked if I could share my views. You know what they said? "Absolutely, we'll get you up there just as soon as we can." That, my friends, is not the "selfish attitude" that Jeffrey Ward portrayed our protest signage and demeanor to be. Mr. Ward claimed that we were "promoting our self-interests," because we chose to protest higher taxes. Were the Sons of Liberty "promoting their self-interests" when they took a stand against the British Government following the imposition of the Stamp Act? Absolutely not-and don't get me wrong, I'm not elevating our tea party to the Boston Tea Party, but I am making the clear point that this was not for our se lf-interest, it is in the interest of our country as a whole to cut spending and bring the deficit under control. It is in the interest of our sons and daughters both born and yet to be born, and those who will be saddled with this debt in the long term. Mr. Ward asks "where we, the Geneva protestors were during the last 8 years of President Bush's spending?" Why sir, we were outraged, by the out-of-control spending, but there had not been an annual tax day that had occurred since President Bush signed the $700 billion dollar bailout (better known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP) into law. Though Bush did keep the country safe for 8 years, he also sold out fiscal conservatives by growing government and adding to our national debt. Mr. Ward, how dare you personally attack us for expressing our views? How dare you publicly attack honest, hard working, tax-paying Americans, and belittling us by saying that we don't "make sense?" Who are you, Jeffrey Ward, to make a judgment that the Geneva Republicans who were at the tea party did not vote? That's a ridiculous blanket statement that offends me and many others who were at the tea parted who did vote.... Like me, you see, I'm a full time student and I work with animal rescues all around th is area, so I don't exactly have a schedule that allows me to clear time on a very specific day to cast a ballot. That's one of the reasons they offer early voting.
Lastly, I think it's laughable that Mr. Ward chose to criticize FOX News, when a study in the aftermath of the 2008 election conducted by the Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University shows that FOX News had the most fair, unbiased coverage of all cable news networks. Even Governor Ed Rendell, a Democrat from Pennsylvania said, "FOX did the fairest job as to remain most objective of all the cable networks." Granted, FOX News hosts more commenta tors that are self-professed conservatives, but in reporting hard news, FOX is "fair and balanced" as they claim. Oh, and did I mention that it was the FOX Business News channel who filed a FOIA lawsuit against the federal government because the Feds wouldn't disclose where the TARP money has gone? With all due respect, Mr. Ward seems to be living in a fantasy world. Perhaps Mr. Ward prefers CNN or MSNBC, who taunted tea party protestors by loudly trumpeting lewd sexual metaphors. Yeah. There's unbiased reporting for you on those networks, one run by GE, whose CEO is Jeffrey Immelt (who does business with the Iranians who are sending weapons into Iraq which are killing our military personnel), and the other, run by self-professed left-winger Ted Turner. So in closing, I'd just like to appeal to the editorial board to vet your pieces a little better before publishing them. It's fine to publish hard commentary th at questions intentions, but by making inferences about peoples' motives and core values for protesting government waste, it is completely and utterly unprofessional. Mr. Ward's piece was filled with disparaging remarks that leaves a bad taste in peoples' mouths about your publication. Oh, and as for Mr. Ward's assertion that many of us tea party protestors would somehow label him as a "left-wing elite..."
"Elite?" Please don't make me laugh.
Cordially,
Michael J. Stanek
