To the editor:

The clash of ideas and a spirited debate of the issues are all part of any healthy democracy. Our national conversation is reflected in newspapers every day, where all points of view should be represented so that the reader can make up his own mind about the those issues. This is as it should be. But when one individual constantly makes absurd, offensive, and even objectively false claims; when that individual refers to any competing viewpoint as “fascist,” or compares any opposing political philosophy to that of the Nazis; when, and especially when, this same individual tries to rewrite American history and even lies in order to support his claims, well-I, as an American, have a problem with that-a big problem, especially when this person is a nationally syndicated columnist who appears in The Breeze every week. I am talking about, of course, Conservative columnist Thomas Sowell. Thomas Sowell is a think- tank resident of Stanford University who holds a P.h.D. in Economics, but not one in common sense or truth. How or why this man is taken seriously as a political thinker is more of a mystery to me than Stonehenge. I cannot be the only one who feels this way about this fool. In case you are not familiar with Thomas Sowell, let me highlight some of his recent brilliance:

During the historic 2008 Presidential Election, Dr. Sowell, although himself African-American, could not find one good thing to say about now President Barack Obama. Sowell couldn’t even address or acknowledge the historic accomplishment of Obama being the first to ever win the nomination and then the election. Not one word. No, he couldn’t or wouldn’t speak of this. But what he could do was continually mention Barack Obama and Adolf Hitler in the same sentence. This kind of comment should sicken every American, no matter what their political affiliation.

In another fairly recent column, the learned Dr. Sowell railed against the idea of high school students having to do community service for their college resume. The activity that angered Dr. Sowell the most was helping out at a homeless shelter. Apparently, in Sowell’s conservative black-and-white world, anyone who ends up in a homeless shelter is just no good. High school students shouldn’t help out at a homeless shelter, he argued, because they shouldn’t have to be involved in, and I quote, “feeding people who refuse to work.” You can tell that he has a P.h.D. can’t you? To characterize every person in a homeless shelter as there because they “refuse to work” is despicable, especially in today’s economy. It is also proof positive that Dr. Sowell has been in his ivory tower way too long. God forbid young people help out those in need and see how lucky they themselves really are. God forbid they see how cruel life can be or develop a sense of compassion or community. They might not turn out to be Conservatives when they grow up-we can’t have that! Yeah, they’re better off playing XBox or going to the mall instead…

Using Sowell’s logic, I guess all the woman who seek shelters for battered women are there because they refuse to get along with their husband or boyfriend. I guess, too, that all those people who became homeless during the Great Depression got that way because they refused to work, too. I sincerely hope that if the great Dr. Sowell ever finds himself down on his luck and in need, he is met with more insight and compassion than he himself shows to his fellow man. As for me, I hope he ends up having to go through the Dumpster at KFC for his next meal. It’s called karma, Dr. Sowell.

Last but not least I bring you Thomas Sowell’s true masterpiece of drivel. His real work of propaganda has been reserved for Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal. To accomplish this mission, Dr. Sowell has taken it upon himself (with the help of other right-wing loonies) to rewrite an entire era of American history by omitting simple facts or, when that wasn’t enough to advance his case, to simply lie. In his most recent column called “Random Thoughts,” Mr. Sowell speaks of FDR and asks, “How can a President of the United States be re-elected in a landslide after four years when unemployment never fell below 15 per cent for even one month during his first term?” Man, you can just smell the BS steaming off this question, can’t you? What’s wrong with this picture? Hmm… Let’s see-I wonder why Dr. Sowell doesn’t bother to tell you what the unemployment rate was when the great Herbert Hoover left office and that awful Roosevelt took over. Anyone? Anyone? Here’s what Sowell left out: In 1933, the unemployment rate was 25 percent! He must have forgot that little detail, I guess. During the next four years-those same four years of Roosevelt’s first term that Sowell singled out-the National unemployment rate went from 25 percent to 14 percent. Here’s the year-by-year figures for those of you playing at home: 1933: 25 percent; 1934: 21.7 percent; 1935: 20.1 percent; 1936: 16.9 percent; 1937: 14.3 percent.

So, unemployment never fell below 15 per cent, not even for one month, Sowell? Back on the real planet Earth, in America, and not in Sowell World, unemployment fell every year during the four years of FDR’s first term. It dropped 11 points in those four years and the ratio from 1933 to 1937 was about 45 percent! Gee, I can’t imagine how Roosevelt was re-elected in a landslide, can you?

Shame on you, Thomas Sowell. Get your facts straight or shut up. If you have to omit facts or even lie about them in order to advance your cause, what does that say about your cause? If you’re still so puzzled as to why FDR was re-elected why don’t you come down from your ivory tower and talk to people who actually lived through the Great Depression-ask them why they voted for Roosevelt! Ask them if the New Deal worked or not! Sowell would never leave his think tank, though-he might have to walk by a homeless shelter. You know why FDR won, Dr. Sowell? Because he put people back to work and because he gave them hope. Created a few programs too, I think FDIC, Social Security, SEC, WPA. Guided us through and won World War II. My God, what a crummy President! How was he ever elected four times?

By the way, the most recent Presidential poll conducted by real historians now ranks FDR as our third Greatest President. I’m no expert, but I think this puts him ahead of Herbert Hoover and George W. Bush, whom you described in another recent column of yours as “an honorable man.”

If you want to invent history, Mr. Sowell, write a novel. There is no difference right now between you and those who try to say that the Holocaust never happened or that the moon landing was faked. That’s the company you’re in. Enjoy! Good luck with that.

Go sell crazy someplace else! And stay out of my paper!

Below Thomas Sowell’s picture in the newspaper, it says that he is a “senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University.” So, he is an “Economist” who “works” at an institution named after Herbert Hoover… That’s like having Stevie Wonder as a driving instructor for the DMV.

Don Millard

Cape Coral