Oren M. Spiegler – 6/1/17

This page was last updated on June 6, 2017.

“Portland Three” showed what heroes really are; Oren M. Spiegler (OMS); Beaver County Times; June 1, 2017.

Mr. Spiegler is such a prolific letter writer the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review gave him a little tribute back in 2003. Google “Oren M. Spiegler” and you’ll get more hits than you know what to do with. Unfortunately, prolific is not a synonym for competent. Mr. Spiegler claims to be a Republican. In my critique of “Breathing more freely,” I cited reasons why I was “beginning to believe Mr. Spiegler is simply another Republican impersonator,” but he sealed the deal with “Greatest foreign policy debacle.” Subsequent letters provided more confirmation. The group of local Republican impersonators also includes Messrs. William A. Alexander, Arthur Brown, Edward J. Hum, Bill Ralston, and George Reese, all claiming to be disgruntled Republicans. While he has previously claimed to be a Republican, this appears to be the first time Mr. Spiegler claimed to be a registered Republican in a BCT letter. If true, Mr. Spiegler joins Mr. Hum in going the extra mile to further his impersonation of a Republican.

ALERT! Though I missed it by several months, Mr. Spiegler finally did the honorable thing and ended his charade and deregistered as a Republican.

You can find links to previous critiques of Spiegler letters I critiqued here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

The BCT has or had a limit of 12 letters per writer per year. In 2014, the BCT either ditched that limit or made a huge exception for Mr. Spiegler. By my count, the BCT published at least 25 Spiegler letters in 2014. Mr. Spiegler and/or the BCT dialed things back a bit in 2015; the BCT published only 15 Spiegler letters in 2015 and 10 in 2016.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“At this ugly time in American history, we recently saw the best within us in Portland, Ore., as an Army veteran, a recent college graduate and a student came to the aid of two women. They were being subjected to taunts of hatred from an ignorant man who assumed, based on their appearance, that they were Muslims.

“Two of these individuals paid with their lives, stabbed to death by the hoodlum. The other sustained significant wounds.

“Only as he was under pressure to respond three days after the attack occurred, and only after he had issued earlier angry tweets last weekend about the Russian connections, did the president issue a statement, by tweet, of course, containing a modest level of condemnation of the atrocity. Certainly we would have heard from him immediately with a charge of ‘radical Islamic terror’ had a Muslim or a Muslim pretender engaged in an attack in which he had taunted and stabbed individuals because they were white and American-born.

“In a world in which the word ‘hero’ is often misused to characterize individuals with mere athletic prowess, the ‘Portland Three’ epitomize the word. They likely saved the lives of two innocent individuals. They deserve to be honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. I do not expect the award to be bestowed on them by this president, but their selfless act and decency shall always serve as an inspiration to humankind.”

[RWC] Congratulations to OMS for demeaning the brave, selfless act of these three men by lowering it to the status of a club with which to bash his political opponents. What a piece of work.

This is not OMS’ first “I do not expect” moment regarding Donald Trump (DT). A previous OMS letter was entitled “Don’t expect Trump to offer any compassion” regarding Mrs. Bill Clinton’s (HRC) health. When DT proved him wrong, OMS said nothing until he was called out by another letter-writer. OMS offered no apology, however. Instead, OMS wrote, “Trump did, in fact, pay lip service to wishing his opponent well, words which were no doubt written for him by Kellyanne Conway, his new campaign manager …”

OMS alleged he “learned that he [DT] had said some lovely-sounding words, the right thing to do” only “After my letter was submitted.” Let’s look at the timeline: HRC’s doctor announced HRC’s pneumonia sometime after 5:00pm on 9/11/16, DT made his comments early the next morning (9/12), and the BCT published the letter on 9/13. OMS didn’t mention how hard he tried to get his letter retracted once he knew he was wrong <g>.

According to OMS, DT couldn’t win. If DT said nothing, he had no compassion. When DT wished HRC well, it was “lip service … no doubt written for him by Kellyanne Conway, his new campaign manager …”