After reading Jim Cyr’s overwrought and hyperbolic onslaught, “Calling a fifth column a fifth column” (BDN, March 14), can there be any denying the genius of the American Constitution’s founders in guaranteeing freedom of speech and press? It is presumably against attempts to replace diverse viewpoints necessary for self-government with enforced orthodoxy that the founders resolved to fight. So should we.

Cyr’s authoritarian rant should be the occasion for lovers of liberty to mobilize. And bravo to the Bangor Daily News for pairing Cyr’s diatribe with Shankar Vedantam’s “Disagree about Iraq? You’re not just wrong – you’re evil.”

Timothy Cole

Orono