Why is it that being a coward is so fashionable these days?  The many forms that it can take, the end result is all the same.  Why is this not something to be ashamed of?  Why is it that being such is no longer considered shameful?  And on top of being a coward, nothing is done to try and hide such a fact.  A couple of the forms that I have seen it take, whether personally or generally observed, are nameless attacks and baseless attacks. 

Captain Grandpa is an example of a coward in the nameless attacks category.  I do not know who this person is; however, he finds it necessary to send a letter without an address, a real name, and thus no possible means of response and dialog like a reasonable person would.  A while ago the Star Tribune published a letter to the editor written by yours truly.  From what I can recall it had something to do with war, how it is not always entirely bad as many like to portray it.  War can bring unity, peace, freedom from tyranny, the ability to escape from fascism and Communism, and so forth.  From this particular piece I garnered two pieces of hate mail, one was by Captain Grandpa.  Indeed both brought much laughter, but they also brought a sense of shame of the cowards that sent them. 

Whoever wrote the letter and signed it as Captain Grandpa obviously knew he was wrong and was afraid of a logical, reasonable, and respectful response to his letter.  Thus, no address, no real name, and nothing of the sort was provided.  It is easy to attack when nameless.  However, the playing field was greatly in his favor because when my piece was published, my name, real name, was included.  Five seconds of an address search would result my address.  And that is completely fine with me.  I am reasonable enough to provide a name and not be afraid of hate mail.  Captain Grandpa is not, plain and simple.  Though he obviously used an alias, as a nameless coward he should be ashamed.  If he sent me a letter allowing me the opportunity to respond to his fallacious comments and accusations, the story would be much different.  However, he felt it easier to hide behind a pseudonym because sometimes the truth is frightening, sometimes the truth hurts.  The other letter I received had some address on.  I typed it into Google and saw that other people got similar letters from this nameless person or these nameless people.  The envelope contained a slew of propaganda pictures and stories of how evil this country is because of what it did and is doing in Iraq.  Equally as cowardly, but much less original; though it must have been quite expensive to produce all of the nice, colorful pictures. 

I do not understand why it is seen as acceptable to attack without a name, especially when not personally attacked the first time and certainly not anonymously so. The same goes for baseless attacks, especially, again, when not baselessly or otherwise attacked in the first place. I saw such today on a post someone made using one of my published letters to the editor in the Star Tribune (it can be found at http://lakeminnetonkaliberty.blogspot.com/2007/04/daily-letter_12.html). I appreciate the reproduction of what I said; it is always nice to get ideas out in more places. And the poster was even nice enough to give me credit for it. This letter had to do the hoax and cult like following of global warming. It was completely fact, citing many examples from last spring or so, like frozen citrus and peach crops, cold temperatures, canceled baseball games due to cold and snow, and so forth. The poster then went on to praise me for being able to independently think and so forth. I appreciate the compliment. Then someone named Roger Kiemele replied, calling me a moron and telling me to change my name.