Mailbag:

I have just finished reading the letter by Chuck Cassity in your Oct. 15 edition (“Great job Mr. President. Really.”), and I am appalled.

Cassity seems perturbed that our president, Barack Obama, has just won the Nobel Peace Prize.

I wonder why that bothers him so.

One would think that that would be a source of pride for an American.

I suspect that there is virtually nothing that Obama does or could do that would please him and his ilk.

The acerbic nature of his sarcasm I would expect to hear from spoiled teenagers who have been denied something they really wanted. Too bad they can’t always have what they want when they want it. And they’ll let you know about it, a la Cassity.

No matter what, Obama was overwhelmingly elected, and whether we believe that he should have been or not, we owe him and the office respect.

To denigrate him so heavy-handedly is more than disrespectful; it is insulting, and it reflects poorly on Cassity. But why does it bother him so that the president won the Nobel Peace Prize?

I don’t know how they choose the winner, and I doubt that Cassity does either, but the fact that he won is a source of pride for me and many Americans. Way to go, Obama.

I assume that Cassity is a columnist for the Daily Pilot because he regularly is published and always with the same vitriolic slant. I suppose that Rush Limbaugh isn’t available.

Bob Tiernan

Costa Mesa

Dissent doesn’t mean hatred

A frequent and recurrent pattern of speech has emerged in recent very public demonstrations.

Whether the question is illegal immigration legislation, gay rights, national health insurance and other matters of deep public concern, the claim is made that if you disagree with me on any one of these issues, you hate me.

Making this kind of statement demonizes the opposition, clothes the claimant with undoubted virtue and badly contaminates the nature of the debate.

It seems very difficult for folks making this claim to consider that one may dissent on principle and not on some bitter racial, sexual or governmental prejudice.

It has often been remarked that civil discourse is rapidly diminishing today in favor of a slash-and-burn rhetoric. It’s time to clean up our public language irrespective of the issue in review.

David H. Wallace

Newport Beach