(I guess bleeding heart liberal was too much for him to even write.)

I really am illogical when I grieve for fallen soldiers before I blame the publication, The New York Times, for printing the names of the fallen.

I guess I am illogical when I question spending in excess of $500 billion, all of which we have borrowed, to go to war with Iraq, a country that was not the home of the 911 attackers, while sending a less than adequate number of soldiers to Afghanistan, the country that actually harbored the terrorists who carried out the attacks.

And I must really be illogical when I question a large “Mission Accomplished” banner’s being attached to a Navy destroyer before the war was won.

My illogical way of thinking really becomes prominent, I guess, when I consider myself to be optimistic, as I noted in my previous letter, that this “great country, as it always has, will use its brains, its innovative nature, and its empathy, to make things better.”

My most egregious act of illogical thought, however, has to have been assuming that I knew the gentleman’s thoughts after he sent a letter to the editor in order to share his thoughts. (Perhaps that letter was ghost written.)

But, of course, this gentleman is nothing if not gracious — how kind of him to allow me to continue to be illogical — and to invoke the US Constitution in doing it!  His beneficence overwhelms me.

One final note, however, and this is out of Letters to the Editor 101:  Kind sir, if you have to use more words in a second letter explaining what you meant by your first letter, perhaps your first letter could have used some work.  Check the New York Times style book.  They always seem to get their wording right.

Laura E. Lerman

55 Main Street, Newtown                                                 July 30, 2008