Angel Brown – 4/21/08

This page was last updated on April 21, 2008.

Showing true courage; Angel Brown; Beaver County Times; April 21, 2008.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“April 7 letter writer Rita Gavert was undoubtedly correct in writing that a leader must have courage.

“A ‘leader’ must have courage to march 4,034 fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters to die in a foreign country, with no peace, stability or Osama bin Laden to show for it.

“It also took U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton along with other ‘leaders’ who must have had courage to vote in favor of this calculated mayhem to move forward.

“My sarcasm is not meant to convict those who have given their lives for this country to have done so in vain.”

[RWC] The only thing missing is for Ms. Brown to claim she supports the troops, though I guess that’s tough after accusing them of “calculated mayhem.” Did Ms. Brown study under John Kerry? Perhaps Ms. Brown models her support after Times editorials.

“I’ll add also with sincerity that leaders like the Revs. Jeremiah Wright and Jesse Jackson, along with other representatives of the ministry, must have had courage to travel to Libya in 1984 on a mission to rescue American pilot Lt. Robert Goodman, who had been taken prisoner in Lebanon when his jet was shot down.”

[RWC] A new myth to provide cover for Messrs. Wright and Obama is that Mr. Wright’s trip to Libya was to obtain the release of Lt. Goodman. Though Mr. Wright traveled to Libya in 1984, it was with Louis Farrakhan, not Mr. Jackson. The Wright/Farrakhan trip took place in June 1984, more than five months after the release of our pilot in January. With Mr. Jackson’s assistance, including a subsequent trip to Syria, Lt. Goodman was released in early January and was greeted in the White House by President Reagan on January 4, 1984.

“They rescued him and brought him home, and just like our soldiers fighting in Iraq today, that’s what leaders who have courage do.”

[RWC] This is an example of someone wanting to believe something and not checking it out. Ms. Brown had to know better. If Mr. Wright had anything to do with our pilot’s release, we would have heard about it long ago, either from Mr. Wright, Mr. Obama, or some other credible Obama supporter. Finally, I did quite a bit of Googling and found no credible sources asserting Mr. Wright had anything to do with Lt. Goodman’s release. The only places I found this mentioned were on blog postings by people who clearly supported Mr. Obama.