Opinion Piece

Was Offensive And One-Sided

To the Editor:

I wish to express my anguish at the disgusting article [Commentary, December 17, 2004] published last week entitled “Connecticut Could Use a Good Old-Fashioned War,” written by William Collins. From beginning to end, the whole piece is offensive and painfully one-sided.

Where to start... Mr Collins portrays being upset at the fact that not enough US manufactured planes have been shot down, boats sank, or helicopters crashed. He trivialized human life by saying “bye-bye overtime” in reference to work at Sikorsky or Pratt & Whitney. That, on its own, merits a stern rebuttal. Layer that with a clearly one-sided liberal point of view, and you have the naive, shortsighted piece, which The Bee chose to publish.

Mr Collins also seems to indict conservatives for their use of think-tank organizations and for filling up military spending bills with pork spending. I would invite him to open his eyes, as Democrats are equally guilty in this pursuit. In fact, the company I work for, Terex Corporation headquartered in Westport, would significantly benefit from a new transportation spending bill, but legislative leaders from the Democratic Party have continued to push their own agenda, have pushed for unrelated excess spending for their own states, and so far have failed to pass the basic transportation bill.

Lastly, his pomposity makes it nearly impossible to read the whole article. He professes as if he is an expert on modern warfare and a Washington insider. Clearly, he is neither. I will sleep easily tonight knowing that those tasks are the responsibility of our nationally elected leaders, and not Mr Collins.

Tom Gelston

96 Walnut Tree Hill Road, Sandy Hook        December 21, 2004