LETTERS: LIBERAL, CONSERVATIVE: TERMS HAVE BEEN ABUSED

To the editor:

It pains one's sense of decency to read the full-column letter in the April 14 issue engaging in an abortive attempt to define the terms liberal and conservative. It proposes to "be helpful to provide a definition that gives a better sense of their meaning." Hardly. The letter is simply another display of a veiled diatribe that says no more than "conservatism is good, liberalism is bad."

The terms have been so badly used and abused to have been rendered useless. Sadly enough, such discourses continue only to increase misinformation and misunderstanding instead of making a constructive contribution to the national dialogue on the important issues facing us.

GILBERT DEGENHARDT

Cape Girardeau