Dear Editor:

In response to the people who seemed to take umbrage with my letter about Glen Beck.

I do check my facts and I stand by everything that I wrote in my previous letter. And speaking of facts, the fact that the responders to my letter are so tolerant of the message of Glen Beck bears out the one glaring fact that the people who watch his program every day are totally indoctrinated to his way of thinking. Another fact that I recognize is that I live in a community that is predominately made up of persons who's beliefs are ultra-conservative and I know that I am very much in the minority in my way of thinking and interpreting what is going on in this country. This is the main reason I feel compelled to write about the facts and information from another point of view.

My facts are facts and I do check my sources. The facts of the $3 million Beck earned from his web site came from a Forbes Magazine article date 10- 17. The facts concerning the 80 sponsors that withdrew their sponsorship from Mr. Becks programing came from Wikipedia and have been reported on by several credited News sources. Corky Siemaszko, New York Daily News, reported on 09-02-09 in his column that Mercedes Benz, Wal Mart, Capital One, HSBC, Discover, Proctor & Gamble, GMAC, and CVS to name just a few were no longer sponsoring Becks program, joining the long list of sponsors to boycot him because of his outrageous comments, calling President Obama a racist. August 8, 2009 in a column by Carl Cannon, a Senior Washington Correspondent for Politics Daily reported that Wal Mart, Best Buy, Travelocity and as many as 20 more sponsors, so far had decided to stop sponsoring his programing because of the inflammatory and damaging remarks.

There are many more sources to back up what I wrote about the sponsors who have opted out of their monetary support of Beck.

Now as far as the comment about the Black Helicopters, The Masons,The Pope and all, I did not say that theses were quotes from Beck himself, they are quotes used by David Von Drahle contributor in an article in Time Magazine, dated 09- 11-09. In the article he compared Beck to a description used by Richard Hofstrader,Historian, Dewitt Clinton Professor of American History, who wrote the book, "The Paranoid Style In American Politics". Hofstader wrote about how social status, anti- intellectualism, irrational fear and how paranoia propels political discourse and action in politics. In the article by Von Drahle, he compared Becks style of commentary as having this kind of an influence on his mesmerized audience. Fact, it is Becks style of commentary. Fact, he delivers this message with the intent and purpose to scare the pants off his devotees and lead them to believe that we are all on a down hill slide into the Hell of Communism and Government take over. I and many other rational thinking people believe this is not going to happen.

To the matter of the "so called" communist influence that some believe to be rampant in the Obama administration, I believe that many and most comments that are attributed to these people have been taken out of context. If you note that Mr. Beck never airs complete sentences much less paragraphs of the speeches given by these people. He picks and chooses the comments that fit his subject matter of the day in order to further his anti-government, anti- Obama message. While I do not agree that there are communists working closely with the administration (Van Jones resigned), I have seen all the little clips in which Mao is quoted and made mention of, by the people in question and none of them have said that they were communists, and that's a fact, too. I do, however, believe that they should watch their off the cuff comments and be more careful about what they say and how what they say, is perceived. But I really think that these are just stupid, foot in mouth, incidents. It is also my belief that the general idea of a communal society is desirable, I do however, know that only God himself could possibly make it work because I believe that mortal man is not capable of remaining uncorrupted and resistant to the sin of greed. Historical fact also, proves this out..

As for the facts about the McCarthy era in American history, the fact is, the very term McCarthyism is used to denote a sense of discord and distrust and is generally used to create a feeling of shame and embarrassment to those who are accused of it. Historically speaking, Joe McCarthy is not much revered for what happened during the McCarthy hearings.

I feel I must clarify some of my disdain for Mr. Becks style of commentary so I will relate a short story of why I feel as I do about him in particular. My Husband is a musician, a few months ago he played for the entertainment of the people who participated in the "Walk For Life" Cancer fund raiser. One of the followers of his little band, who always tried to be wherever they play because he enjoys the music was not in attendance. When asked why he wasn't there, he responded, because he was afraid to go out. Glen Beck had warned on his program that people should not attend any event where there would be large crowds of people. He said that the terrorist were going to strike these events at any moment. Currently this old man and his wife are hold up, scared to go out. He was in fear for his life just going to the grocery store. This is extreme, I know, but how many other people has Becks hypothetical story line, scare tactic and Doom and Gloom message affected this way? I know that we should be aware of the treats against us, but I also feel that as long as our Armed Forces are on the soil of these other countries, these people will hate us more and more everyday. For those who think that this all started with 9- 11, you need to read your history. It is a fact that these people are the way they are because that's they way they have always been. Every rock in Iraq and Afghanistan has been used as a weapon at some time or another against each other or the multitude of invaders of their lands. This has been happening for the last 6 thousand plus years. They will remain the way they are no matter what we do or how many of them we kill or how many of us they kill. If we are so sure we will be attacked again, then we should shore up our borders and stop having such soft travel and Visa regulations. We should stop allowing their young men to come here under the pretense of getting an education, only to drop out and go under ground in order to plan further attacks here and now. Fact, as I write this letter I am listening to the horrible news of the shooting at Fort Hood. The shooter has a Muslim sounding name but he is a US Soldier, an Army Psychiatrist, not an Afghan or Iraqi terrorist. The story, so far, is incomplete, but it raises the question in my mind of what a far greater threat there may be here within our own borders and even within the Military, the very ones who are our protectors and who are under enormous stress. This shines a bright and harsh light on another reason we might should get the heck out of these awful wars. These wars are costing us a lot more than any health care plan imaginable. Its costing us the very lives and blood of our Children. We should be screaming our protests about this, we should get involved and we should check the facts out about the real reasons we are in these countries. Our Son is a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army and has served in Afghanistan and was with the forces that captured Noriega in the Panama offensive, so we know about being part of a Military Family and how stressful it is. I pray this minute for those in harms way and for the lives lost today and for the families of these victims. It's a sad day.

I have nothing else to add to this letter except, I hope that, if you are reading what I have written here, you will do as I do and check out the facts. Everything you hear on the TV is not true, even from the ones who say they have "direct phone lines open to the White House" They all put a spin on what they tell you, and this spin is not always fact. Especially the ones who do it in order to sensationalize and entertain, and these are the Facts Sir !!....

Joy Shaw- Fairfield