Freedom of speech is a precious right that must be protected, but there are times when some individuals make such ridiculous remarks they either should be laughed off as coming from someone so open-minded that his or her brains are falling out, or answered in some manner or other.

This past Friday, a Journal-World syndicated columnist by the name of Leonard Pitts Jr., a writer for the Miami Herald, wrote: “The country for which the world wept in September of 2001 is now the country much of the world fears. For many people, the most dangerous man on the planet is not Saddam, but Bush.”

This is hogwash, to use a polite term, and Pitts should have had the courage to say of Bush that this is his opinion, if that’s the case, rather than trying to hide behind a phony generalization that it is the belief of “many people.” Certainly there are those who hate or despise Bush and/or America, but consider who these people are and why they dislike what Bush and the vast majority of Americans stand for.

Freedom of speech is a hallmark of our country, and hopefully most sound-thinking Americans can distinguish between reasonable, responsible dissent versus vitriolic, bitter bile.