Ignorance will destroy America
Writers who support Sheriff Hammond's viewpoint tend to do so rationally, using known facts with logical thinking and avoiding emotional thought and words.
They refer to the known actions of Islamic terrorists, refer to facts from academic sources and the sheriff's personal experiences.
The writers who do not support the sheriff's perspective tend to use emotionally loaded words to espouse pure opinions and baseless accusations.
For instance, a Sept. 13 letter writer claimed the sheriff's remarks were thoughtless, abysmally ignorant, an erroneously hateful diatribe of distorted beliefs. A person in the Sept. 13 "Rant" column reported the sheriff is a hate monger who doesn't know the topic. Based on what?
Hammond's speech is found in its entirety on the web. Go to Channel 9. Type in "Sheriff Hammond" in the search box and select "entire speech."
Information about Islam is easy to find in books on Amazon, Books-A-Million or politicalislam.com. There is an old saying: Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.
Sheriff Hammond is right. Being ignorant will destroy the America we all love and cherish.
Roger W. Catlin
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Share opinions; sign your name
First of all, the Times Free Press has an excellent policy of letting people comment on opinion pieces and cartoons. This is admirable, but there is a big problem because no one has to sign their actual names.
First of all, an opinion without a name is not worth anything. To have this letter printed in the paper, I had to give my name, address and phone number.
That is the way any opinion, whether on the printed page or in cyber land, should be presented.
Anonymous online comments foster a false bravado, fake bravery and extreme nastiness. The reason for not using a name is fear. Fear of the boss finding out, fear of your family finding out, fear of being personally criticized, fear of retaliation, etc.
What this fear causes are people with manufactured courage who express extreme versions of opinion. It is not what someone would write with a name attached.
Someday, there will be a case where some anonymous person harasses or hurts someone who uses their own name, and the Times Free Press will be liable.
It is not right and it is not smart to let anonymous comments continue.
Tim Price