Flipping to the Editorial and Opinion section in my copy of Newsday Thursday morning, I found this in the Letters section:
You asked your readers what Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers supporting Sen. Barack Obama's campaign has to do with this election ["Unnecessary roughness," News, Oct. 7]. Well, let met tell you: When a candidate for the highest office in the land "pals around with a terrorist" who tells The New York Times, "I don't regret setting bombs; I feel we didn't do enough," I think the American people should be concerned about that candidate.
And when a candidate for the highest office in the land calls himself a community organizer, and trains members of a left-wing organization like ACORN [the Association of Community Organizations for Reorm Now], I think the American people should be concerned about that candidate, especially since, if these same left-wing radicals, or their friends, could be appointed to key government positions in a Barack Obama administration.
Jack Coughlin
Deer Park
Vice Chairman of the Babylon Town Conservative Committee
I felt a strong need to respond, respectfully but vehemently.