To the editor:

This is in response to the column by Myriam Marquez (Journal-World, June 11) concerning Democratic Party Chair Howard Dean “running amok.” Give me a break! I actually have to laugh these days at the Republican attack machine monitoring Howard Dean and everything he says and does – mostly out of context, I would guess.

But what really got me was the third to the last paragraph where Ms. Marquez states that Republican Party Chair Ken Mehlman “isn’t wasting time bad-mouthing the opposition.” Is she kidding? Well, I guess she’s technically right – they just pay others to do it for them! They are much too busy decimating the middle class with tax cuts to the rich, allowing more arsenic in our water, changing EPA reports to take out anything “scientific” they don’t like, opening forests for logging and continually misleading the public about how things are going in Iraq!

Howard Dean speaks up and he speaks the truth. I, for one, appreciate his enthusiasm, his honesty and his willingness to go where no other Democrat has gone before – to stand up to the far-right ideology that is destroying our way of life. I hope we all wake up before it’s too late.

Howard, keep it up!

Marilyn Woodward,

Lawrence