Letter to the editor: What was writer driving at?

What is the point of publishing Thomas St. Martin’s “viewpoint” in the May 22nd edition of the Woodbury Bulletin? More importantly what is the point of Mr. St. Martin’s article? Although I’m somewhat impressed by his vocabulary, the article is little more than meaningless rhetoric. Using unnecessarily flowery language, Mr. St. Martin simply makes a lot of statements which he presents as facts. Upon closer inspection these bombastic statements are just his opinions. He gives no facts or examples to back up them up. For example, he states “And there is the widely held notion that non-governmental organizations, churches especially, must subordinate their principles to the consciences of their individual members.” Where is this notion, also known as an idea, so widely held? Were there polls taken that show this belief is common? Is this just common knowledge to which I am ignorantly unaware? Who and where are the people who believe this? I suppose most of them are in Washington D.C. or Hollyweird. Like most of the contents of Mr. St. Martin’s article, there is no basis for this statement. He fears the readers will think his examples “are far-fetched, alarmist or worse.” What examples? The only example he offers is regarding “the federal government’s ‘free’ contraception mandate.” That example is woefully inadequate for justifying his many statements.

Isn’t there already enough unsubstantiated rhetoric in the media? I think the Woodbury Bulletin is doing a disservice to the community by publishing articles such as Mr. St. Martin’s. While I appreciate Mr. St. Martin’s enthusiasm and effort to convey his opinions, I think his method of doing it is at best worthless and at worst dangerous. As far as the main point of Mr. St. Martin’s article? I don’t necessarily disagree with it, because I don’t know what it is.

Bob Griffin - Woodbury

Tags: letters to the editor, opinion