Fence Post reads like gang graffiti

Help! Our Daily Herald Fence Post is being overrun with hideous graffiti.

This summer we have seen John King call President Obama a "creep," Steven Heuberger equate him to an "ayatollah," and U.S. Army veteran John Beeson is calling for even more "(vitriolic) attacks" against the commander in chief.

Republicans are even sliming other Republicans! On Sept. 1, Dave Schachner called Rep. Mark Kirk a "weasel" because of a recent vote he did not agree with.

Once such invective is directly applied to an individual or group, it has the effect of marking one's territory for the purpose of intimidation, much like gang graffiti. This reduces rational thought process to its lowest common denominator, well beneath the journalistic standards seen in the rest of this newspaper.

What we all need to do, it seems to me, is to make a real attempt to hew more closely to the facts and to eschew any more of this puerile name-calling and verbally bullying behavior.

Let's see if we can clean up the old Fence Post in time for fall.

Thorn Randall

Libertyville