Dion's attempts at being a poor man's Jimmy Breslin, a gritty columnist for everyman, are tedious. Looking at Dion's photo, he may want to reconsider taking cheap-shots at others' physical appearance, as he did with Lee Greenwood.

Dion tries to equate today's right-wing/Tea Partyers with past KKK lynchers. Today's right-wing/Tea Partyers are largely aligned with the GOP. The equivalency he tries to make is false.

President Andrew Jackson, founder of the Democratic Party, owned slaves. He enacted the Indian Removal Act, empowering him to negotiate relocation of Native Americans in the South. Instead of negotiating with the tribes, he took the extreme step of forcible relocation, the "Trail of Tears," which lead to the deaths of thousands.

Slavery was supported by the Democratic Party in the antebellum "Solid South." Jim Crow laws are legacies of the party. The KKK and its abhorrent activities, such as lynchings, were shielded by Democratic political/judicial bodies.

President Wilson restricted free speech rights during World War I, jailing or deporting many political opponents via the Espionage Act of 1917, the Sedition Act of 1918, and the Immigration Act of 1918. He was also an unrepentant bigot.

FDR interned Japanese-American citizens during WWII. German POWs were treated better than many African-American servicemen. Birmingham, Selma: I could continue.

Actions by some right-wing/Tea Partyers, such as wearing "cammies," singing "God Bless the USA," waving "Don't Tread on Me" flags at rallies, exercising their First Amendment rights on talk radio, etc., are insignificant in comparison.

Granted, there were, and continue to be, right-wing nuts who deserve our contempt, such as Timothy McVeigh, but the acts by these few pale when balanced with many past acts sanctioned by government and its supporters.

Gary Long

Spotsylvania