Mailbag:

Today as I was shopping in a local center, I was appalled to see a white van emblazoned with pictures of President Obama with a Hitler-style mustache.

Nearby was a table with a young man holding forth on “Obamacare,” the table hung with more of the disgusting portraits.

What kind of country do we live in when the elected president is treated with such disrespect? I told the young man that I found his pictures disgusting.

Then I came home and read Steve Smith’s column in which he took Obama to task for being “unpresidential” (Kids These Days,

“Speech is a good idea,” Sept. 6). There is no way that Obama can get any sort of respect from people who make these unreasoned comparisons and who spread such lies in any way they can. Obama has a very difficult job, and the petty complaints about his “informal tone” should be the least of his worries.

Smith mentions that the president’s inexperience has hurt the country. I would ask him, has it hurt us worse than the previous administration? We are all sadly in much worse shape, and it cannot be attributed to the current administration. Smith further states that trying to get a $3-trillion industry to give up profits is further proof of the president’s silly attempts to reform health care. He is dead right that insurance companies will not give up their outrageous profits. I submit that this bolsters very emphatically the need to force the insurance industry to comply with reforms; the only way to do this is by providing a public option. Smith, you have very adroitly argued the case in favor of the president.

JOAN MORRISON

Costa Mesa

‘Socialist,’ huh? So, tell me your hat size

For those who believe the president wants only to co-opt your children into his socialist agenda by delivering to them a subliminal message veiled in a folksy pep talk about the importance of doing well in school, I will begin taking orders for custom tin foil hats.

CYNTHIA HUDSON

Newport Beach

Educators bowed to pressure, hate, fear

While citing scheduling difficulties for not allowing its students to hear Obama, among other spurious claims, it seems the school district has succumbed to the hate and fear that seems to be a very effective tool to incite people who are willfully ignorant. I am frightened and inspired to work a little harder for truth and justice.

SALLY CORNGOLD

Newport Beach