Civility a two-way street

The June 17 column by editorial page editor Bert Caldwell on op-ed letters mentions the necessity for letter writers to be civil and accurate.

Regarding the first point: The Spokesman-Review could do well to follow that advice when it comes to selecting political cartoons. The so-called cartoons of Michael Ramirez are obnoxious, particularly the one that appeared June 14. The caricatures of the president are mean-spirited and detract from the messages, even those that I might agree with.

The quality of the other cartoons is not much better, both in the drawings and in the messages. How many times have …

The June 17 column by editorial page editor Bert Caldwell on op-ed letters mentions the necessity for letter writers to be civil and accurate.

Regarding the first point: The Spokesman-Review could do well to follow that advice when it comes to selecting political cartoons. The so-called cartoons of Michael Ramirez are obnoxious, particularly the one that appeared June 14. The caricatures of the president are mean-spirited and detract from the messages, even those that I might agree with.

The quality of the other cartoons is not much better, both in the drawings and in the messages. How many times have we wondered what the message was all about?

On the accuracy point, I resent the politicians and letter writers who would do away with Social Security and Medicare on the basis that those programs are socialist freebies. For many years, I paid into the trust funds for those programs, and the fact that the government has raided my insurance to pay for a bunch of stupid wars and other nonsense to benefit the super-rich is reprehensible.

Joseph Wythe

Sandpoint