I got a chuckle out of Sept. 1’s “Wolves vs. sheep” letter on Page A10 of the Peninsula Daily News.
The writer overheard part of a conversation and chose to take great offence at what he assumed the passing stranger meant.
Turning to A11, I found no humor in New York Times columnist Charles Blow using the same technique against President Donald Trump (“Raising an army,” PDN, Sept. 1).
When a reporter asked if he deliberately timed Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s pardon to when people would be distracted by Hurricane Harvey, Trump said no — if anything, he figured more people would be watching the news than normal.
Blow contrived to turn that answer into “political calculation” at the expense of Houston’s Hispanic population.
Plunging forward, Blow expounded his personal theories about people who voted for Trump — theories that suggest he has never once had a real conversation with anyone who voted for Trump.
His closing wishful speculation that Trump will be “compelled to leave but [refuse] to graciously comply” is reminiscent of pre-election speculation that Trump would refuse to concede once Hillary Clinton won.
Reality turned that upside-down, with Mrs. Clinton ungraciously slow to concede.
The letter writer appears to have made an honest misinterpretation of a phrase with which he is obviously unfamiliar, while the professional columnist appears to deliberately misconstrue anything and everything related to Trump.
I’ll leave it to some concealed carry permit holder to explain the sheepdog and wolves analogy, which has as little to do with religion as Mr. Blow’s theories have to do with reality.
Martha McKeeth Ireland,
Carlsborg
Ireland was a Clallam County commissioner from 1996-99 and is a former PDN Commentary Page columnist.