Stephen F. Kislock, III – 5/24/09

This page was last updated on May 24, 2009.

Fear has gotten the better of us; Stephen F. Kislock, III; Beaver County Times; May 24, 2009.

Most of Mr. Kislock’s 40+ letters over the last five years have been Republican-bashing exercises, though he sometimes goes after Democrats for his pet causes. Mr. Kislock has been a busy writer; this is his sixth letter in two months and the seventh this year. If he isn’t careful, Mr. Kislock will use up his allotment of 12 letters per year long before the end of the year.

Below is a detailed critique of the letter.

“To America and Americans:

“Our forefathers fought and defeated the world’s superpower, Great Britain, and gave us this country.

“America fought two world wars and prevailed over powerful enemies.

“Today, you live in fear of 250 men, imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay, because they might be brought to our soil.”

[RWC] Mr. Kislock could have written a reasoned letter to support his position, but consistent with his letter-writing body of work he chose name-calling.

What I call commonsense, Mr. Kislock calls “fear.” We already have these international terrorists locked up in a high-security prison guarded by the U.S. military on an island outside the U.S. Given that “ideal” situation, why on Earth would we ever consider bringing these guys to the U.S.?

“Our soil, which is soaked with your tears of fear. How far have you fallen. [sic]

“Hope for America is in Harding [sic], Mont. These brave Americans want to do their part, and they are willing to imprison 100 inmates of your fear in their community.”

[RWC] Though I don’t intend to question the bravery of Hardin (not Harding) residents, Mr. Kislock failed to mention the town is in default of bonds ($27 million) it issued to build the brand-new – but never used – medium security prison. For two years Hardin has been trying to get anyone to send them prisoners in an effort to help the local economy.

“Our forefathers must wonder what has become of their great experiment where the people have such fear of 250 imprisoned men.”

[RWC] True. Given the traditional “rules” of war, our forefathers would have gotten what info they could from these terrorists and then killed them as spies since they fought for no country and wore no uniforms.

“Grab your duct tape and plastic and cower in fear.”

[RWC] It looks like the Times truncated Mr. Kislock’s letter. The part where I would expect Mr. Kislock to tell us he would do whatever it took to build an international terrorist prison in Beaver Falls is missing.