Mr. Behnke let me give you a BRIEF history on Mr. Seaver, if you don't already know of him. He lives in Oshkosh and has been whining ever since Oshkosh decided to widen Jackson St. (Mr. Seaver lives on Jackson St.)

Interesting that a member of the city council feels that citizens who speak out are "whining".

He either has, or had a website that has/had a lot of rubbish on it regarding various issues, primarily on the Jackson St. project. I wish I had the link to Mr. Seaver's Jackson St. website, it is truly entertaining.

http://www.oshkoshbygosh.org

You couldn't buy entertainment like that. I believe Mr. Seaver has a lot of time on his hands, and stays up late watching the Sci Fi channel, or has seen too many episodes of the X-files.

Well, since I've never owned a TV, I've been fortunate enough to have never seen any of those. I do read a lot tho, including some sci-fi.

I would also like to let you know that I'm a City Council member in Oshkosh, and I would like to invite you to stop by my home, you're welcome anytime. Maybe we can go to the EAA museum and check out the Warbirds. Don't worry, they don't start the aircraft inside, so you won't hear any "noise." Unfortunately, you had to come across the one_________ (place your own word(s) here) that lives in Oshkosh.

Intellectual? Oh, come on, I'm sure there are at least a few others.

I'm glad to hear that you enjoy the EAA, it truly is a pleasure to have the organization in Oshkosh, and have the AirVenture every year!

I surmise from your letter that you served in the military in some capacity. I would like to thank you for defending my freedom, and keeping the USA the greatest country on the planet. As I'm sure you know, there will always be people of Mr. Seaver's ilk that first of all don't understand the price of freedom, and second of all don't have any respect for people like you who defend it.

As you can plainly read from Mr. Seaver's letter(s) I believe he is about as far left as you can get.

Now this is an extremely interesting, and rather enlightening statement. It also gives us a clear indication as to why things are so horribly screwed up not just in Oshkosh, but in the country as a whole.

Here we have a politician who says that someone who just said he voted for Reagan twice and has voted mostly libertarian since then is "about as far left as you can get."

So what's the problem with Herr Esslinger? There are a few possibilities:

a) He can't read.

Or

b) He simply doesn't take the time to read something carefully before he flys off and reacts.

Or

c) He carries on a deliberate campaign of disinformation about someone or something he disagrees with.

d) Or he is simply so out of touch, or down right ignorant, of what constitutes the political spectrum that he thinks Reagan was left wing, or that the Libertarian party is left wing. Either of which would be rather odd, since most even semi-educated people consider Reagan a right-winger and the Libertarians to be somewhere to the right of the Republican party.

Perhaps, however, this would be a good time to interject that there is a serious problem with the old "leftwing/rightwing" political scenario, and that is something about which a great deal has been written of late by various political commentators. And something, in fact that you'll find the Libertarians writing about in their literature

-- the fact that just "left/right" is extremely simpleminded: there is not just a left/right, but also an up and down and back and forth and an x, y, and z axis. Nothing is black and white, eh?

This is one of the great things that I really like about Ralph Nader too -- he understands that it isn't just the commies and fascists in government who want to take away our rights and civil liberties -- it's also the mega and multinational corporations.

Of course, the good old fascist burghers like Herr Esslinger perhaps can't comprehend the political realities of our current situation. Or comprehend someone like myself who dares to criticize Der Faderland, let alone Der Reich!

Not only does he despise Oshkosh, he apparently doesn't like the United States either. I'm sure you would join me in saying that you would be more than happy to help finance his move out of the U.S.

Hey, that would be great. You can send the money to my email address thru PayPal. Gee, I can't wait. Maybe you'd like to buy my house too?

Perhaps if Mr. Seaver moved to some Socialist or Communist country, he would understand how good he has it here in the U.S. But then again, I believe he may be a Socialist or Communist, so he may love it in a country with that form of government.

No, no, no I'll take Costa Rica, thanks. Although one of the unfortunate things about our present world dominating fascist regime is its total disregard for national boundaries and its kidnapping and torturing of foreign nationals. Including outright invasion of other countries killing and maiming thousands of innocent civilians to topple a leader they don't like, as in Panama.

At this point, I think it's safe to assume that Herr Esslinger is consciously carrying out a disinformation campaign against me, as in (c) above. In my previous post, I clearly stated I despise socialism -- not because I have no concern for the poor, but because it requires one helluva' lot of government to make it function. But Herr Esslinger continues the pretense that I'm a commie. Only a commie would criticize our glorious Faderland, right? Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil!

In closing I would like to say that your letter to Commentary was very well written, and that I'm sorry you had to come across the likes of Mr. Seaver.

Yes, disillusionment is always difficult, eh? But that's one of the problems of freedom of speech, there are always those nasty old dissidents who abuse it and disturb the status quo.

God bless you and your family.

Sorry, but I'm definitely not going to ask the Goddess to bless you and yours.

Sincerely,

Sincerely? What a crock.

Paul Esslinger

Harmon Seaver

return to commentary