To the editor:

In case you missed it, go back and read the Journal-World editorial page from Sunday, Feb. 26. It doesn’t get any better.

Page 10B starts with conservative columnist George Will defending free speech from the repressive efforts of both the radical left and the radical right. At the bottom of the same page liberal writer Ellen Goodman correlates sexual repression by the radical left with that of the radical right.

What do the actions of Muslims rioting against the publication of Muhammad cartoons, and the enactment of racial hate crimes in the United States have in common? Everything. What do Andrea Dworkin and Phill Kline have in common? Everything. Each believes truth is something that can be imposed by law on the ignorant. Each begins by controlling thought.

What do George Will and Ellen Goodman have in common? Everything, but mostly respect of individual choice. Thought is sacred and must be left alone. Freedom means freedom of expression, precisely from radical do-gooders, who know what is best for us, and are willing to impose truth, rather than allow us to discover it on our own. There is truth, but only if we find it ourselves. Freedom is not neat or serene; it’s messy, mostly a muddle, and we’re like T.S. Eliot’s Rum Tum Tugger, who “only likes what he finds for himself.”

William Skepnek,

Lawrence