To the editor:

Many of the plans and ideas of conservatives are so repugnant that to garner any kind of acceptance, their supporters have to distort and mislead. We get proposals to turn public forests over to slash-and-burn corporations, with titles like “Healthy Forests Initiative.”

The Bush administration has to have a new excuse every few months for why we invaded Iraq, grasping for the one that will gain some acceptance (beyond the 38 percent who have latched onto one of the excuses and think it was a good idea).

I want to clarify a distortion from the right-wing media echo chamber which has landed on the Journal-World editorial page. It’s a little thing, but it shows how they work; it’s a lie and should be corrected.

Tuesday’s published letter from a Kevin Groenhagen quotes Gold Star Mothers for Peace founder Cindy Sheehan as saying “America has been killing people on this continent since it was started. This country is not worth dying for.”

Mr. Groenhagen, like the shrill right-wing media voices he emulates, clearly intends for us to think Ms. Sheehan said, “American is not worth dying for.” She did not. Anyone who has seen or heard Ms. Sheehan’s remarks in their original context would know that she was talking about Iraq, not the United States.

Anyone who removes that context to use Ms. Sheehan’s personal grief to stir up anger and hostility is trying to sell a viewpoint that cannot stand in the sunlight of truth.

Art Hadley,

Lawrence