by
Alan Myerson
09/14/2006
Martha Doran's response
(Letters, Sept. 7) to my letter [Letters, Aug.
31] calling Carl Hampton’s Aug. 17 “Your
Money Matters” column "replete with
unsubstantiated opinions and accusations" is
itself replete with unsubstantiated opinions
and accusations.
Hampton's column was primarily about the
Department of Homeland Security's waste
and fraud and the financial costs to us taxpayers.
He did briefly point out the
"erosion of our civil liberties" as
one of the ancillary costs to the U.S. and
that's what provoked Doran's attacks on
him. I must have misunderstood her
sarcastic position regarding our "free
and open elections" and their connection
to the DHS. I apologize for any
misunderstanding. In attacking me,
however, she continues with a statement
that "voter fraud...always has been, to
some degree, always will be." What
a cavalier position for one who insists that
we continue to "hold free and open
elections!"
She also argues that demonstrators should be
"managed...to provide for the safety and
convenience of working people going about
their business and for the safety of our
public servants..." And further
suggests that I look at "footage of
Tienanmen Square in 1989." Come on! If,
in Ms. Doran's opinion, the U.S. has become
like China, then there is little anyone can
say to her in support of our 1st Amendment
rights.
As for her position regarding the freedom to
worship here, perhaps – rather than asking
7-11 employees near the King Fahd Mosque on
Washington Boulevard – she should ask some
of the people in that congregation.
Ms. Doran decries the absence in my previous
letter of any mention of "the lack of
further 9/11 acts against U.S. citizens on
U.S. soil – the single most important
achievement of the DHS and single most
important outcome of the infringements on the
'civil liberties' of known or suspected
terrorists' phone call privacy and money
transfers."
Actually, I did address that issue but the
editor deleted it in the interest of space.
What I wrote was that "while she is not
inaccurate to state that 'We haven't been
attacked for 5 years,' she neglects to point
out that we hadn't been attacked for 10 years
prior to the horrors of 9/11. Given her
sense of logic, one might conclude that we
were twice as safe from terrorist attacks
before the advent of the Department of
Homeland security."
Alan Myerson
Culver City
