Day 100, April 13

It is no secret that my values are conservative. Nor am I shy about sharing them. When I wrote a letter to the editor to our local newspaper, the last thing I expected was to receive a piece of hate mail in return. The author of this letter took the time to look up my address, then composed a diatribe that accused me of being racist and someone who hates "the elderly, women, minorities, etc." The letter continued in this vein for a full, single-spaced page.

It would have been laughable (since none of these things apply) if it hadn't been filled with such vitriolic passion. The writer took pains to conceal his identity, even going so far as to use a Washington DC Chamber of Commerce return address. The fact that he didn't have the courage or integrity to sign his name says much about him.

I'm not sure why I'm sharing this incident with you, except, I suppose, that I needed to try to make sense of my feelings. That is one of my purposes in writing this blog, to make sense of my feelings and, maybe, share some of that "sense" along the way with you.

This I know for sure: one of the great things about our country is our freedom to express our opinions, whatever those opinions might be. I still believe that. I also believe that we should take credit and responsibility for those views.