Readers Write 10/26

SECOND AMENDMENT

Kid packing a pink gun? What a pack of nonsense

Reading “The politics of packing heat in public places” (Metro, Oct. 18), once again, I am grateful that our state is blessed with public servants so ardently striving to solve the people’s problems and to protect their rights. Cherokee County is especially fortunate to have legislators such as Georgiacarry member Rep. Sean Jerguson (R-Holly Springs), who gave his 4-year-old daughter a “pink .22” as a birthday gift.

Presumably, she has the matching pink bullets. And her little brother will get his “blue .22,” to be fair, at the appropriate age.

One can just imagine little Miss Jerguson in the Sunday school show-and-tell, with her “pink .22” causing great excitement. As the class discusses the Sermon on the Mount, they might want to amend it with “Blessed are the children who pack heat, for they shall inherit ...?” Perhaps the violent world of their fathers.

William Haffner, Ballground

COLUMNIST

Not ready to let go
of Furman Bisher

It was not time to leave. Hopefully, it will not be the end of an era. I believe I speak for most Atlantans who learned Furman Bisher’s last column was in the Oct. 11 AJC.

Furman is unquestionably one of the greatest sports writers of our time — recognized by his peers as a national treasure alongside Grantland Rice, Red Smith and Jim Murray. His annual AJC Thanksgiving column has been a tradition for many years.

Sometimes, change can be a good thing, but losing an icon at his best saddens me. Perhaps we readers never fully expressed our appreciation for his remarkable talent, wit, and enthusiasm.

While Furman many soon be 91, he has only gotten better and wiser with age. Unlike the many great athletes Furman covered who suffered career-ending injuries, Furman remains the most gifted sports writer we have — and he still has so much to offer.

Furman, God bless!

Peter E. Blum, Atlanta

CARTOONIST

Investor’s Business Daily cartoon a treat to see

Thanks for including the cartoon from Investor’s Business Daily in a recent paper (Opinion, Oct. 19). I hope you will continue to look around for the best you can find to include on the AJC’s editorial pages.

Richard Wilson, Atlanta

MEDIA

Writer who nicked Pitts is the one confused

Per Robert Brown (“Pitts seems to confuse Fox opinion with news,” Readers Write, Oct. 19), the credibility of Fox News should not be sullied by the factual falsehoods foisted by Bill O’Reilly and other Fox commentators on their opinion shows. This begs two questions.

First, will he likewise rail against whoever next criticizes the AJC as a newspaper for the opinions of editorialists Cynthia Tucker and Jay Bookman, no matter what they write?

Second, how does he justify calling the lies Pitts cited “opinions”? While each of us is entitled to his opinion, none is entitled to lie.

A credible source makes that distinction. Personally, I fault Fox and the AJC for not taking more pains to do so in the points and counterpoints they publish.

Bob Wolfson, Marietta