Dear Editor,
The O’Colly’s board has really embarrassed itself, whether it knows it or not. You got a fundamental element wrong in your editorial, “Stillwater silences streetside picketers,” on Wednesday, June 25.
It was Payne County Commissioners, not the city of Stillwater, that took what you view as a “hard stance in the opposite direction” regarding free speech.
I refer you to the article entitled “Permission to speak?” on the Stillwater NewsPress Web site (article dated 17 June 2008).
One would think that the very next sentence in your editorial, “City policy states that any person or group wishing to use county property must seek permission first,” would have raised red flags in the editorial board’s office that perhaps something was amiss in this editorial.
If you want to say “for shame” on someone for this policy, your words should be directed at the Payne County Commission.
While you’re at it, direct some of that shame toward yourselves for not doing the most basic research on this issue.
This error is not a matter of nuance or subtle detail; it is a fundamental error of fact.
The O’Colly board should know better. I suggest you fire whoever is doing your research.
Kevin A. Gerfen
Stillwater OK
Comments from the Web
From the Westboro Baptist column:
Timothy Phelps, Fred Phelps’ son, explained why they protest military funerals:
“We found their idol and we’re pissing all over it.”
Let’s take the quotes off of “free speech” and call it what it is: harassment.
By the way, the Patriot Guard Riders are invited guests of the family in grief. These are not “pro-soldier events;” they are private funerals of Americans killed in the line of duty. You better believe the WBC would file a lawsuit if they had a leg to stand on.
Likewise, the Phelps’ would deserve to bury their deceased with dignity, should anyone try and turn the tables on them.
Tom
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