Edward Hum – 8/26/10

This page was last updated on August 26, 2010.

Terrorists are our enemy, not Islam; Edward J. Hum; Beaver County Times; August 26, 2010.

Mr. Hum has written more than 50 letters since early 2005, including a 10-month hiatus from September 2007 to July 2008. Most of Mr. Hum’s letters have been no more than exercises in bashing President Bush and/or other Republicans. Mr. Hum’s letters are also flame-throwing exercises. I don’t know if Mr. Hum actually believes what he writes, or if he simply likes to stir things up to call attention to himself.

Mr. Hum frequently includes “fellow Republicans” or something similar in his letters and is one of a group of local Republican impersonators (The group also includes Messrs. William A. Alexander, Arthur Brown, William G. Horter, and George Reese.) who write claiming to be disgruntled Republicans. You have to give Mr. Hum “credit,” however, for going the extra mile to further his impersonation. As of September 2006, Mr. Hum was actually registered as a Republican despite the fact he’s no more a Republican than is Dennis Kucinich.

Given his body of work, for a while I wondered what Mr. Hum would use for subject matter now that Barack Obama is President. Mr. Hum wrote three letters in support of a government-run, taxpayer-funded healthcare monopoly (here, here, and here), then he reverted to his Bush-bashing habit, as in “Bush earns status as ‘most liberal.’” I guess some addictions are too tough to overcome.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“As President George W. Bush said, we are at war with terrorists, not with Islam.”

[RWC] In “Tough luck, indeed,” Mr. Hum wrote, “President Bush is about the dumbest president in the last 212 years.” Why would Mr. Hum now use as a reference a person for whom he has absolutely no respect?

“There has been a mosque within four blocks of Ground Zero in New York City for 40 years, and now someone wants to build an Islamic community center within two blocks of the site. Doesn’t that show what a great country this is?

“Or, since Oklahoma City terrorist Timothy McVeigh was raised in Roman Catholic churches in Buffalo, Catholics should not be allowed to build a church in Oklahoma City.”

[RWC] I must have missed the reports indicating Mr. McVeigh bombed the Alfred A. Murrah Building in the name of Catholicism and missed all the Catholics who defended him and his actions.

A Time interviewer asked Mr. McVeigh, “Are you religious?” Mr. McVeigh replied, “I was raised Catholic. I was confirmed Catholic (received the sacrament of confirmation). Through my military years, I sort of lost touch with the religion. I never really picked it up, however I do maintain core beliefs.” According to a story in The Guardian (UK), “In a letter to the Buffalo News daily in New York state … McVeigh said he was an agnostic but that he would ‘improvise, adapt and overcome’, if it turned out there was an afterlife. ‘If I’m going to hell,’ he wrote, ‘I’m gonna have a lot of company.’” Yep, there’s no doubt Mr. McVeigh was a devout Catholic and killed all those people in the name of Catholicism – not.

I have to figure this letter falls into the category of Mr. Hum simply trying to call attention to himself.