Sherry Allen – 5/4/11

This page was last updated on May 4, 2011.

Let’s defy history; Sherry Allen; Beaver County Times; May 4, 2011.

Since January 2008, the Times has published at least 30 letters from Ms. Allen. Letters I critiqued are here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. Of letters I didn’t critique, one (“Conserving water for future,” 1/13/08) asked us to conserve water (primarily by not eating meat), another (“Say ‘no’ to push polling,” 2/10/08) complained about alleged telephone “push polls” by Republicans, and the third was (“Plant a garden to offset oil usage,” 8/1/08). In one letter I did critique, Ms. Allen gushed about a book she found “that has hundreds of ideas on how to save our planet.” In a partisan letter, Ms. Allen concluded with “Let’s endeavor to walk together peacefully.” In one letter, Ms. Allen related a story of disaffected Republicans voting for Mr. Obama. In another letter, Ms. Allen tried to compare abortion and war in an effort to promote Barack Obama over John McCain. Other letters from Ms. Allen were entitled “Just appreciate the here and now,” “Let’s be proactive on the environment,” “Arena a valuable community asset,” “Time to get behind health-care reform,” “A state budget we can all live with,” “Keep pushing for a public option,” “Election ruling terrible for nation,” “Practicing small acts of kindness,” “It’s how we act after events that matters,” “Use freedom of speech wisely,” “Let’s reduce our carbon footprints,” “Natural gas drilling impacts our water,” and “Don’t take shortcuts on drilling for gas.”

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“I appreciated Mark Slyman’s letter, ‘We let China hurt Christians,’ because a friend is a missionary in China. What impacted me most was his ending with, ‘Let’s always remember that hatred has no boundaries.’

“Last month my husband and I attended the screening at the Penn State-Beaver campus of the documentary ‘The Anatomy of Hate - A Dialogue of Hope.’”

[RWC] The movie website says, “For six years the filmmaker worked with unprecedented access to some of the most venomous ideologies and violent conflicts of our time including the White Supremacist movement, Christian Fundamentalism as an anti-gay platform, Muslim Extremism, the Palestinian Intifada, Israeli Settlers and Soldiers, and US Forces in Iraq.” I haven’t seen the movie, but the above statement appears to imply moral equivalence of the mentioned groups.

“Hate is learned, and feeds on fear and anger. But it can be defused and prevented. Humanity’s noble trait of empathy can work miracles. We watched parents de-sensitizing and indoctrinating their children. I cried when a proud six-year-old girl sang, ‘God hates America.’”

[RWC] Those on the left tend to have a different definition of “hate” than most of us. To lefties, any opposition - no matter how measured or peaceful - to leftist policies is “hate-filled propaganda.”

“But I felt hopeful when an old white supremacist said, ‘l left my group because I realized the people I was terrorizing were just like me. They have names and families and feelings, too.’

“Even more moving was seeing Israeli and Palestinian soldiers meeting together and refusing to kill each other.

“After telling a local friend about the documentary I was shocked and scared when he said, ‘Over the past few years hate groups have grown here in Western Pennsylvania.’”

[RWC] What are the “hate groups [that] have grown here in Western Pennsylvania?”

“Let’s defy history and evolve into peaceful beings.”

[RWC] I’m afraid Mrs. Allen ignores history. “Peaceful beings” are responsible for the world’s democracies. That said, hateful individuals will always be with us.