LETTERS: MCCAIN IS ONE OF THE REAL HEROES

To the editor:

A leading spokesman for the Democrats, Al Franken, was a guest on the MSNBC John Gibson show this past Friday. As we all know, NBC is one of the three major networks that all promote the far-left ideas of the Democratic Party. During the discussion, which was devoted more to the Republican Party candidates, some mention was made about Sen. John McCain's being a hero because of his service to his country and spending all those years as a prisoner of war. Franken then made the comment that he didn't consider McCain to be a hero. He went on to say that then-Navy fighter pilot McCain allowed himself to be captured and was therefor able to sit out the remainder of the war.

I now must interject some of my own thoughts about such liberal views. Franken, like many other Democrats, has chosen President Clinton as his most respected hero, a person who writes a letter to his draft board saying how he deplored the military. He then evades the draft by leaving the country while other men are dying or are prisoners being held in bamboo cages and being beaten hourly. I guess they would also choose as their hero someone who would say, "Senator McCain is crippled because he can't raise his arms above his shoulders." They also might choose someone for a hero who was able to deceive his wife while having sex in another part of the house. He said it wasn't sex, but the blue dress told a different tale. They may even choose as their hero a person who would look the world in the eye and say, "I didn't have sex with that woman." Again the blue dress told a different tale.

Now let me give you an example of what I believe a hero is in my eyes: McCain and thousands of others like him, some who gave their lives and parts of their bodies and/or spent years as prisoners of war being tormented hourly, some with so many bones in their bodies broken that years later they are not able to stand upright or able to lift their arms above their shoulders. They are truly the real heroes, the ones who died or their bodies and minds broken beyond repair are all heroes. The sacrifices they made allow Franken and others, both on the right and left, the freedom of speech, although the left seems to want that freedom while at the same time denying it to others. You pick your heroes, and I'll pick mine.

I am a World War II and Korean War vet.

JACK BALTHUS

Cape Girardeau