Neighbors

In my local newspaper, a man with the unlikely name of Jorge Smirnoff (Have I mentioned him before?) occasionally sends a letter to the editor. It is invariably mean-spirited and often misinformed. On Sunday, after describing those who disagree with him in various childish barnyard terms, he made the statement, "Don't mess with your neighbors and odds are they won't mess with you." My first reaction was that with that attitude, he couldn't have many friends, and that's sad. Then I thought of the obvious question, "Which neighbors should we 'not mess with?' Would it be those who first attacked the World Trade Center, the ones who attacked the USS Cole, the ones who bombed two of our embassies in Africa, or the ones who killed 3,000 Americans on 9/11?"

In my response, I also commended Smirnoff for the unexpected restraint he showed by merely calling the U.S. government corrupt instead, as he had said in the past, the personification of evil. I suggested he may have embraced someone else's counsel, but because the government is neither corrupt nor evil, I suppose he needs even more education.