Look closely, see 'radical' message

Martin Luther King Jr. once said, "Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity." With that in mind, I would suggest that those who keep sending in letters about Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin's alleged "book ban" take the time to research the issue themselves, instead of relying on chain e-mails that become bigger rumors with every click of the "forward" button. Per an Anchorage Daily News article (Sept. 4, 2008), June Pinell-Stephens, chairwoman of the Alaska Library Association's Intellectual Freedom Committee, verified that her files, dating back to 1984, did not have any documentation of books being banned from the Wasilla Library. Perhaps a more educational project for those still stuck on the book ban farce would be to research the books and authors that have thus far inspired or shaped the thoughts of our would-be leaders of this country. One in particular should be Saul Alinsky's book, "Rules for Radicals." Alinsky was a well-known Marxist whose 1971 book portrayed his views on organizing the "have-nots" to achieve mass power. Of interesting note is that before being removed in subsequent editions by the publisher, the original edition displayed a dedication by the author to Lucifer, someone you might call the very first community "agitator" (or "organizer," if you prefer). Alinsky's "rules" are now being used to train today's community organizers, including Sen. Barack Obama, a self professed "disciple" of Alinsky. Alinsky wrote, "they must feel so frustrated, so defeated, so lost, so futureless in the prevailing system that they are willing to let go of the past and change the future. This acceptance is the reformation essential to any revolution." Echoes of Alinsky's rhetoric were evident in community organizer Barack Obama's insulting description of small-town Pennsylvanians as "bitter," have-nots who "cling to guns or religion... as a way to explain their frustrations." Alinsky also wrote, "Ego must be so all-pervading that the personality of the organizer is contagious, that it converts the people from despair to defiance, creating a mass ego." Obama's learned "contagious" personality has effectively created a mass frenzy for "change" that is simply a veil for socialism which will ultimately strip this nation's citizens of their right to free enterprise, private property, personal responsibility and individualism. Several of this world's most notorious leaders were socialists, and their Marxist nations eventually became authoritarian states with stagnant economies.

Sandra L. Hartogh

Grayslake