Unabashed Optimist Responds

To the Editor:

In a recent letter to the editor [“Nuggets Of Wisdom,” July 11], I evidently broke a cardinal rule of  Newtown liberals. I promoted an optimistic outlook at today’s world, and expressed it within an Independence Day, Stars and Stripes tribute to the opportunity and good fortune that exist for Americans despite the press’s doom and gloom coverage of recent events in our country. I failed, however, to adequately express the appropriate feelings, and to bow to the sentiment of Gloomiest of Guses Bob Karnoff [“Optimism Vs Reality,” July 18] and self-proclaimed bleeding heart liberal and New York Times devotee Laura Lerman [“A Bleeding Heart Liberal On The Fourth,” July 18].

Mr Karnoff noticed my egregious error immediately and out to the woodshed he took me. Penning pearls of wisdom such as, “It’s time for an end to optimism.” (He actually wrote that.) And referring to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, “Emerging victorious is in doubt. I bet most Americans will be satisfied if we can simply emerge,” he went on to misquote me as referring to the casualties in Iraq as “insignificant.” He put me in my smug, optimistic place. Lesson learned.

Ms Lerman chimed in with “If this gentleman [referring to me] does not wish to be seen buying the Times, I will gladly send him the list of the fallen each day and he can write their parents and tell them how historically low the casualty count is.” She goes on to write: “I would rather be a bleeding heart liberal than think, as this gentleman seems to think, that if problems don’t happen to him, they aren’t really that serious.”

My sole reference to military casualties: “While every life lost is a life-changing tragedy for the families involved, casualties are incredibly, historically low for these wars.”

How does Ms Lerman reach conclusions about my thinking? She makes them up. She infers meaning that doesn’t exist. Casualties are low — historically low, incredibly low — a tribute to advances by the US Military in equipment (particularly body armor), medical procedures, and evacuation procedures. Ms Lerman has no clue what my opinion of the military is, how deep and longstanding is my gratitude for their sacrifice, how fortunate I believe I am and my family is to live in a country where men and women will volunteer to risk their lives to protect the freedoms we all enjoy and occasionally take for granted. Those individuals who have died in the service of this country, in my opinion, indebt all of us with a respect, a gratitude, a devotion that can’t be compensated. The grief their families experience may never subside in this life and that is a tragedy. I truly stand in awe of these men and women.

Which leads me to one final Nugget of Optimism: the essential value of the United States Constitution is that it protects the rights of expressions for even the poorly constructed, illogical opinions of the Laura Lermans and Bob Karnoffs of this country.

Brendan Duffy

4 Chestnut Knoll Drive, Sandy Hook                             July 22, 2008