Americans angry with both parties

This is in response to letter writer Diane Roberts ("Wanting country back real laugh," Sept. 22) who painted all concerned Americans as "angry, white men and women" and the Republican Party as "the party of religious zealots, racists, gun-toting extremists and hate-mongers."

According to a new poll by Rasmussen Reports, Americans are overwhelmingly angry at the U.S. government and let down by the lack of ideas from BOTH political parties. Sixty-six percent of those polled said they're angry at the policies of the federal government and 59 percent say the anger is greater now than it was during the Bush administration.

Of course there are those in Yuma who wouldn't know of this poll because they never watch "Faux" News (and apparently have never heard of the internet or Google so as to do their own research). They also would never hear these figures on the local mainstream news channels because these figures don't support one party over another or one president over another - they point to a general dissatisfaction of ALL voters with our government.

The writer also lambasted the Bush years and would have us believe that George Bush alone was responsible for every ill that had befallen the earth during his tenure as our president.

The Democrats were in charge of the Senate on Oct. 16, 2002 and both the House and the Senate passed the Iraq War Resolution.  The United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence received the same intelligence that President Bush did, and voted unanimously to endorse its findings on the Senate Report on Iraqi WMD Intelligence.

As for the issues that should "ring a bell" for us, both Ray Nagin and Kathleen Blanco are Democrats and both were directly responsible for the administration of city and state during Hurricane Katrina, not President Bush.

Let's not even start on CIA "outings." One covert CIA agent (really an administrator) against the integrity of the entire corps of CIA agents now being challenged by the current administration.

No Child Left Behind? Seems to me that this was a much-touted accomplishment of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, brought up again and again by the mainstream media during his funeral.

Wake up, Arizona! The letter writer does not speak for the voters of this country. Indeed, it is our right to raise our voices in disagreement. I will not denigrate her right to free speech by calling her names or demeaning her party, however, I personally have earned the right to speak my mind and will not be silenced by those narrow-minded individuals who so callously use the race card rather than facts.

I am not a racist, extremist, gun-toting zealot; I am an American and a former American soldier. I am a patriot who lives and believes in the words of Abraham Lincoln, "America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."

JONNA PITTMAN

Yuma