Well, Holy shit.

I wrote a letter to the editor of my hometown's newspaper and he said he's going to print it.  I'm genuinely shocked.  I love Kentucky, but even our most liberal Democrats (outside of Louisville, that is...I LOVE John Yarmuth) are practically Republican and the Princeton Times-Leader (my hometown's paper) reflects that conservative nature.  Anyway, here's my letter.  It really gets to the heart of what I have such a problem with: the use of scare tactics to incite voters and and the complete disregard for facts that is currently plaguing the media. 

"Every time I come back to Princeton, I am disappointed by the contents of this newspaper. Not the actual news stories that pertain to the area, but by the guest commentary. While home for Christmas, I read a piece of guest commentary about the ACLU and communism. What is the point of bringing up the brief support of communism of a man who died in 1981? Not only did he change his mind as information of Stalin's regime made it's way to the US, but it was more than 70 years ago! It's a red herring at best. The whole point of the article was to scare the conservative base into being against anyone and anything associated with the ACLU. The problem with that is that the ACLU has the correct stance on religion in government and schools. I realize that's probably hard to understand in a religiously homogenous place like Princeton, but in Louisville, where I live now, it's absolutely necessary. If there is a faith, there is probably someone here who follows it and it would be inappropriate to have administrators of one faith leading children of another in prayer. I doubt any of you would be happy to have someone of another faith (Islam, anyone?) leading your child in prayer. You can't have it both ways. It is neither the schools' nor the government's job to teach the people about faith. That should take place in the home and no where else. And, as much as this may pain some of you to know, the ACLU will defend your right to worship as you please if someone else tries to infringe on your rights to do so.

There is no journalistic integrity in propaganda and fear mongering, which, unfortunately, is mostly what I see in this paper. I don't care if you're conservative or liberal, but printing deliberately misleading pieces that serve no other purpose than to incite people with scary words to get them to vote a certain way is both irresponsible and disingenuous. Perhaps the paper should focus more on facts and leave the commentaries of people who've never heard of Princeton, much less have anything to do with it, to other papers. Over the past few years, I've heard line after line about small town values from every conservative pundit and politician out there. I'm proud to be from a small town. I would not be who I am had I not grown up in Princeton. Having said that, I'm also proud that I moved to Louisville and met all the wonderful city folk that I have who, believe it or not, have the same values and feelings that anyone from a small town does. We're all human and not that different when you get down to it. There's nothing wrong with being from a small town, so long as you don't let it keep your mind small as well."