The Record, the campaign for president in 2004, and, well, a mistake.... at the least. During the last presidential campaign the letter from which the following excerpts were taken was published by The Record, second best paper in the Land of Wilkes.

August 18, 2004
The Record

To the editor,

I have been following the news about the race for the White House. It is obvious that the media wants to influence us into accepting what they think is right. They are utilizing the mechanics of mind control – by focusing on certain ones in the news who will cast a long shadow of doubt about a good person by digging up anything they can find about them and then blowing it way out of proportion so that we are caused to doubt, even that which we know to be right in our hearts, then our loyalty is subtly captured by the ‘other guy.' We are emotionally swept away by these mind benders, thus the wrong people rise to power to fight for our need to justify what we have become through making the wrong choices in the first place. We should let reason, not emotion dictate how we feel and think, what we do, what we believe, not someone else's idea of what is right and wrong.

Ronald Reagan was a good man; I cried when I heard that he had passed on. I always wanted to give him a big hug. I just always liked him! There have been some who have tried to tarnish his good name and integrity. John Kerry at Ronald Reagan's funeral in Simi Valley said, "This moment in Simi Valley is a moment of truth, not just for my campaign but for the future of my party as well. For some of us this may be our only chance to confirm the demise of the man who is soley responsible for turning the American people away from liberal philosophy. As Democrats, we need to put small differences aside and be certain that this man is truly gone. Next, we must reclaim our country from the church-goers, the middle class America and the uneducated conservative masses."

[This is followed by an attack on Michael Moore, and some news from an unnamed soldier calling his Mom from Iraq to tell her to vote for Bush because, among other things, Iraqi children now "have enough to eat, clean water to drink and power to their houses." And a slap at Clinton for failing to attack someone after the first World Trade Center attack.]

That is why I am voting for President Bush, again.

Mary Powers
Millers Creek


Now it should occur to anyone with even a rudimentary understanding of American politics that neither John Kerry nor any other politician running for President would say what he is reported to have said, and certainly not at the very private funeral for Reagan. In other words, this is either someone who is playing a prank on The Record, or someone who fell for the prank and believed it. Or someone trying to deliberately fool The Record and its readers. Apparently Jerry Lankford and Ken Welborn were not able to see through it.

Not that they did not have some help. My next post will be a letter to the same editor written by someone intent on pointing this out.