To the Editor:
I didn’t attend the Fourth of July festival, but after reading the comments in the paper about how some people viewed the Polk County Republican Party dunking booth controversy, I think they are missing the real point.
I believe everybody should respect the Office of the President, the Secretary of State and other high profile offices. However, the people occupying those positions are public figures who represent my country and me, and if I believe that they are disgracing what our founding fathers delineated as the basis for our existence, then they deserve to be ridiculed. The precursor to ridicule is disappointment, and we sure have had our share of disappointments from this administration. Ridicule is not hate, and bringing party politics into the argument as a reason to oppose ridicule diminishes one’s own position. Sometimes ridicule is not a bad thing; it can help a person to realize how they have strayed from what others see as their shortcomings or mistakes and hopefully will give them incentive to correct their previous actions.
Personally, I am ashamed of President Obama because of the way he has behaved both at home and abroad. He has diminished my personal rights and made my name as an American lose the prestige it used to have. Everybody makes mistakes, but his mistakes contain some misdeeds, which far outweigh what I would expect from my president. If it takes a little ridicule to get his attention, so be it. It appears that he is above reasoning with anybody; it’s his way or the highway with pen in one hand and telephone in the other. That’s no way to reach common ground on issues that directly affect all of us.
Hillary Clinton should be ashamed of the way she has behaved since she left the White House as first lady. As Secretary Of State, she disgraced herself on the Bengasi debacle. I can’t help relating that incident to her political ad where she asked who would answer the phone in the middle of the night when an emergency occurred.  We now know it wouldn’t be her. And now that she’s ramping up for a run for the presidency, she has the audacity to hit the TV circuit with her book and espousing how she and Bill were “dirt poor” when she left the White House. If there’s anybody that deserves ridicule, she’s the poster child for position.
If people would just take off their “political hats” and lighten up a bit, they might see things as the really are; ridicule is not always somebody being mean; it is often a way of showing great displeasure with another person’s actions. You may disagree with the form of ridicule and that’s your prerogative, but free speech works both ways, so learn to live with it.

– Karl Kachadoorian
Tryon