I am just astonished at the recent letters blasting columnist Thomas Sowell, calling for The Columbian to stop running his column. It is not surprising that he strikes a nerve sometimes. Isn’t that the job of a columnist?
But I can’t make sense of the charge that “he seldom makes sense.” He writes from his perspective, which others may or may not agree with. Maybe he makes too much sense, depending on your point of view, and this can be threatening to some.
I read things all the time that I don’t agree with, in The Columbian and everywhere else, and then I turn the page. We don’t have to agree with everything we read, and we can always choose not to read a columnist we find objectionable, but we don’t have the right to silence opposing viewpoints. The more letters of this kind that I see, the more convinced I am that this is the motive behind them. Otherwise, why not just keep turning the page?
Thank you to The Columbian for the varying viewpoints.
Sue Stevenson
Vancouver
