To the editor:

I am writing to commend Terry Jacobson for the letter on Sunday. While I do not recognize that our president has any moral or legal legitimacy for his actions, and while I feel he is fueling the hatred that will spark future terrorist attacks, and that he is engaging in gunboat diplomacy and hegemony in the Middle East, I can still agree he is a human being who deserves some respect.

I am dismayed at the people at the peace rallies I attend who can only respond to their feelings of frustration with personal and unwarranted attacks on the president and his Cabinet. There is no place for that, and it would be far more effective to attack him based on the atrocious things he is ordering our troops to do in Iraq and elsewhere.

At the same time, I’m sure Jacobson would agree with Christy Kennedy’s frustration at people shouting obscenities from their cars at the peace vigil. There are insensitive people on both sides, but I have seen few on the side of peace who are advocating bombing anyone. Many of us are proudly patriotic, and we support bringing our troops home and giving them real, productive jobs here at home instead of sending the off to commit atrocities overseas.

Bob Gent,

Lawrence