Letter writers' opinions show little intelligence

I have been reading the News-Times online for the past few months while temporarily residing in Greece. For the last few weeks in particular, I have actually winced in pain and embarrassment while reading the letters to the editor section. My fervent hope is that no one outside the community is reading this ignorant nonsense, since few within the community seem to be refuting it. Thank God someone at least took issue with the opinion that the internment of American Citizens during World War II was a bonanza for those imprisoned.

This week, someone advocates physically mutilating an already severely damaged 13-year-old, and someone else who is unfortunately unaware of the meaning of the word “unconstitutional.”

Let me clear that up — a law is considered unconstitutional if it is in violation of the constitution of the state. Last time I checked, the state of Washington had a fine constitution that has served us well since, well, at least as long as we’ve been a state! Last week, there was a brilliant plan to cut the police department in half and freeze all new housing development, and a slanderous insinuation that the Oak Harbor School District is misappropriating levy funds.

Do we have problems that need attending to? Certainly! But the inflammatory and atrociously uninformed rantings given voice in the News-Times lately are not contributing to solutions for these problems. They’re not even contributing to reasonable debate of the issues. Can’t we do any better?

It’s after reading letters such as those cited above that I wish there were some sort of minimum intelligence standards required for publication.

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