CARLTON FLETCHER: Letting the inmates run the asylum

Hey, mama, we’re all crazy now.

— Quiet Riot

With so much going on this week and only limited storage space left in my cranium, I’ve decided to allow the squawkers and letter-writers to hold sway in this space for a day. The following comments are from actual squawkers, emailers, bloggers and letter-writers.

You’ve reached a new low in declaring “Who cares?” when it comes to NFL players kneeling in disrespect during the National Anthem. I’ll tell you who cares, I care and friends of mine who put their lives on the line to defend this country.

First of all, I want to thank everyone who has served this country in whatever capacity, especially our military folks and first responders. The point I tried to make — obviously poorly — in the column about the NFL is not that I nor anyone should care less about the disrespect shown our country and our servicemen and -women by these pampered millionaires. It was that what some behemoth who plays a game for a living espouses is not in any way going to impact my belief system. But, I do stand by my contention that the people who have fought and, yes, died for this country did so so that people like this have the right to do what they do, no matter how repulsive we feel their acts are.

You seem to have become an apologist for the Albany Police Department. How can you praise them when we have a murder rate that is sky-high? Albany has become an unsafe place.

Sorry, but I don’t believe Albany is any less safe than it’s ever been. As I’ve written, if you’re not involved in the drug trade or you’re not one of those unfortunate souls in the wrong place at the wrong time — which can happen anywhere at any time — you are not any less safe here than you are anywhere else. I commend our police department for having the ability to solve the crimes that have taken place. They’ve done an amazing job of getting these dangerous people off the streets and deserve praise for that. I can guarantee you if you check the major crime closure rate of most cities’ police departments, it’s not near Albany’s.

What you, and all you (expletive) liberals don’t understand is that we’re taking this country back under Donald Trump. It’s people like you and Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama and George Soros and Hillary Clinton who are the problem in our country.

Best I can tell you is good luck with that take-back deal. Sounds to me like someone’s drinking a little too much of the red Kool-Aid. No matter. But one thing I want to assure you and others like you is that I am not a card-carrying liberal, as you want to label anyone who has a thought that doesn’t match yours. I hate liberals, conservatives, Republicans and Democrats with equal measure. I detest the fact that people — and, it seems, that you fit in this category — are so close-minded that they can’t allow anyone to have an opposing thought. I believe what I believe based on what I think is right, not on what Rush Limbaugh or John McCain or Bill Clinton says. It’s called thinking for yourself. … You might try it.

You seem to have made up your mind about the Lee County hospital issue. Why would you oppose something that’s going to lower our health care costs?

No, I absolutely have not made up my mind or taken a side on the hospital issue. I’ve merely listened to people from both sides and tried to report what they’ve had to say because, quite frankly, I don’t believe my opinion would, as we used to say, amount to a hill of beans. I do not, however, believe that anything that’s being proposed by anyone associated with this issue is going to bring our health care costs down. As long as we have federal and state government officials who are beholden to the insurance industry — outgoing state Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens being a prime example — that industry is going to determine our health care costs. And they are not in any instance about helping the general public.

Don’t listen to what those mean people are saying. You’re doing a great job.

Thanks, mom.

Email Carlton Fletcher at [email protected]. Follow @ABH_Fletcher on Twitter.

Staff Photo