To all,
Following a very successful counter demonstration to the MM people
in Bethlehem, PA, a media columnist (Paul Carpenter) published a true
but unfalttering fact about the organizer of the 'Commie Mommies'.
Read the info and colume below, and if you have the time, write a
note to the paper expressing your outrage that this (rare) media
supporter of the 2nd A, is catching hell from his employer for telling
the truth.
If you do write, make sure Paul gets a BCC for his records.
Thanks in advance.
John Masly
Saylorsburg, PA
=========================================
Paul Carpenter, the conservative columnist at the Morning Call newspaper, has come under fire from the entire editorial staff at the paper and is being threatened with termination.
What caused this? In today's edition of the Morning Call Mr. Carpenter told the truth about the leader of the Million Mom March. As it turns out she was arrested for DWI, public drunkeness, and assorted vehicle violations four years ago.
The Million Moms have flooded the Morning Call with e-mails calling for his termination. If we want to keep the only media friend we have in the Lehigh Valley, you must write a quick note saying how much you enjoyed reading Carpenter's column today, how much you admire him for reporting the truth, and the only reason you get the Call is to read his column.
Send your e-mails to letters@mcall.com with a CC: to paul.carpenter@mcall.com
This cannot wait until tomorrow. You must do it NOW. Mr. Carpenter's job is on the line.
His column is below:
Headline: Gun debate rallies are full of surprises
Date: 10/06/00
Not everything turns out the way it is planned.
This week's First Monday 2000 rally in Bethlehem, we were told in advance, was not for gun control. "It's just antiviolence," rally organizer Helen Ruch told me.
That's not the way it turned out; the rally was largely devoted to antigun rhetoric on signs and in speeches.
Ruch had hoped 1,500 would join her, but 70 showed up to march across Bethlehem's Fahy Bridge. That dwindled to 40 for her postmarch rally at Moravian College.
An anti-antigun turnout, on the other hand, surprised even the most ardent National Rifle Association members. More than 1,000 foes of gun control lined one side of Fahy Bridge as Ruch's 70 demonstrators marched across on the other side, then more than 2,000 showed up at Bethlehem's Rose Garden for a rally to support the Second Amendment.
Another surprise, given the passions on both sides, was that nearly all these people were very polite.
At Moravian, following some truly dreadful music, Ruch hailed her "rally to attempt to end gun violence." She said there are conflicting numbers about how many people are killed by guns, but "one victim a day is too many....Our children do not feel safe and that's not fair."
Then began the awfullest music you can imagine, so I bailed out to go see how the other rally was doing.
The pro-gun rally focused almost entirely on why gun control is bad. It was argued that crime increased after cities like New York, Washington and Los Angeles imposed severe restrictions on citizens carrying guns, giving criminals free rein. Other arguments were that things like gun locks and waiting periods similarly leave people defenseless.
All that may be true, but it seems to me that if you have 2,000 zealots in one spot, you should not waste time trying to convince them of what they already intractably believe.
Instead, tell them how to gain political support, pool resources or persuade those not yet in your camp, including news media people, many of whom unabashedly support those who seek to dilute the Bill of Rights.
My sentiments have long been aligned against gun control, mainly because it abrogates part of the Bill of Rights, but also because much of the impetus comes from hysteria.
Last year, I questioned the hysteria over gun violence in schools while there was far less outcry over violence caused by drunks. This week, figures supplied by Mothers Against Drunk Driving said drunken drivers killed 15,935 in 1998. Handgun Control, a Washington group that pushes gun control, said there were 12,102 homicides by firearms in 1998.
Neither figure is heartening, but the drunks are outdoing the gunslingers when it comes to deadly violence.
And that brings us back to Ruch and a final surprise.
Noting her view that it's not fair for children to feel unsafe because of guns, I asked her Thursday if she thinks it's also unfair that they feel unsafe because of the far more serious dangers from drunken drivers.
"What does that have to do with anything?" she replied.
I told her it has to do with her drunken driving charge.
"I have no comment," she said.
That's OK, because Lehigh County Court records commented plenty.
They say Ruch was charged with public drunkenness (later dropped), driving under the influence, and improper "emerging onto roadway" in 1996. "Driver was given sobriety tests of balance and walking and failed all tests. Effects of alcohol were extreme," said an Allentown police report. The report said her breath test registered 0.162.
The records say that in 1997, Ruch agreed to enter the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition program. Typically, when ARD is successfully completed, DUI records can be expunged.
In any event, it seems to me that if those marching across Fahy Bridge genuinely want to curb deadly violence, they can start by demanding tougher sanctions for drunken drivers.
Contact Paul Carpenter
610-820-6176
paul.carpenter@mcall.com
Following a very successful counter demonstration to the MM people
in Bethlehem, PA, a media columnist (Paul Carpenter) published a true
but unfalttering fact about the organizer of the 'Commie Mommies'.
Read the info and colume below, and if you have the time, write a
note to the paper expressing your outrage that this (rare) media
supporter of the 2nd A, is catching hell from his employer for telling
the truth.
If you do write, make sure Paul gets a BCC for his records.
Thanks in advance.
John Masly
Saylorsburg, PA
=========================================
Paul Carpenter, the conservative columnist at the Morning Call newspaper, has come under fire from the entire editorial staff at the paper and is being threatened with termination.
What caused this? In today's edition of the Morning Call Mr. Carpenter told the truth about the leader of the Million Mom March. As it turns out she was arrested for DWI, public drunkeness, and assorted vehicle violations four years ago.
The Million Moms have flooded the Morning Call with e-mails calling for his termination. If we want to keep the only media friend we have in the Lehigh Valley, you must write a quick note saying how much you enjoyed reading Carpenter's column today, how much you admire him for reporting the truth, and the only reason you get the Call is to read his column.
Send your e-mails to letters@mcall.com with a CC: to paul.carpenter@mcall.com
This cannot wait until tomorrow. You must do it NOW. Mr. Carpenter's job is on the line.
His column is below:
Headline: Gun debate rallies are full of surprises
Date: 10/06/00
Not everything turns out the way it is planned.
This week's First Monday 2000 rally in Bethlehem, we were told in advance, was not for gun control. "It's just antiviolence," rally organizer Helen Ruch told me.
That's not the way it turned out; the rally was largely devoted to antigun rhetoric on signs and in speeches.
Ruch had hoped 1,500 would join her, but 70 showed up to march across Bethlehem's Fahy Bridge. That dwindled to 40 for her postmarch rally at Moravian College.
An anti-antigun turnout, on the other hand, surprised even the most ardent National Rifle Association members. More than 1,000 foes of gun control lined one side of Fahy Bridge as Ruch's 70 demonstrators marched across on the other side, then more than 2,000 showed up at Bethlehem's Rose Garden for a rally to support the Second Amendment.
Another surprise, given the passions on both sides, was that nearly all these people were very polite.
At Moravian, following some truly dreadful music, Ruch hailed her "rally to attempt to end gun violence." She said there are conflicting numbers about how many people are killed by guns, but "one victim a day is too many....Our children do not feel safe and that's not fair."
Then began the awfullest music you can imagine, so I bailed out to go see how the other rally was doing.
The pro-gun rally focused almost entirely on why gun control is bad. It was argued that crime increased after cities like New York, Washington and Los Angeles imposed severe restrictions on citizens carrying guns, giving criminals free rein. Other arguments were that things like gun locks and waiting periods similarly leave people defenseless.
All that may be true, but it seems to me that if you have 2,000 zealots in one spot, you should not waste time trying to convince them of what they already intractably believe.
Instead, tell them how to gain political support, pool resources or persuade those not yet in your camp, including news media people, many of whom unabashedly support those who seek to dilute the Bill of Rights.
My sentiments have long been aligned against gun control, mainly because it abrogates part of the Bill of Rights, but also because much of the impetus comes from hysteria.
Last year, I questioned the hysteria over gun violence in schools while there was far less outcry over violence caused by drunks. This week, figures supplied by Mothers Against Drunk Driving said drunken drivers killed 15,935 in 1998. Handgun Control, a Washington group that pushes gun control, said there were 12,102 homicides by firearms in 1998.
Neither figure is heartening, but the drunks are outdoing the gunslingers when it comes to deadly violence.
And that brings us back to Ruch and a final surprise.
Noting her view that it's not fair for children to feel unsafe because of guns, I asked her Thursday if she thinks it's also unfair that they feel unsafe because of the far more serious dangers from drunken drivers.
"What does that have to do with anything?" she replied.
I told her it has to do with her drunken driving charge.
"I have no comment," she said.
That's OK, because Lehigh County Court records commented plenty.
They say Ruch was charged with public drunkenness (later dropped), driving under the influence, and improper "emerging onto roadway" in 1996. "Driver was given sobriety tests of balance and walking and failed all tests. Effects of alcohol were extreme," said an Allentown police report. The report said her breath test registered 0.162.
The records say that in 1997, Ruch agreed to enter the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition program. Typically, when ARD is successfully completed, DUI records can be expunged.
In any event, it seems to me that if those marching across Fahy Bridge genuinely want to curb deadly violence, they can start by demanding tougher sanctions for drunken drivers.
Contact Paul Carpenter
610-820-6176
paul.carpenter@mcall.com
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