Heather Johnston, “Attacks are racist” (BDN, Oct. 18), should check her sources. Though she claims someone in a crowd of thousands cried out “Kill him” at a rally in Scranton, Pa., no one can be found who heard it and other supposedly inflammatory remarks.

The Secret Service, charged with protecting the presidential nominees, takes such threats very seriously. The agents at the rally have stated publicly they never heard such shouts.

On the contrary, both John McCain and Sarah Palin have gone out of their way to keep race out of their campaign. It is only the Obama surrogates who, like Ms. Johnston, inject race into the campaign. Barack Obama likes to claim “people” will make an issue of his “funny name” and that he “doesn’t look like those other presidents on those dollar bills.”

Then there is Democratic Rep. John Lewis of Georgia who recently compared McCain to George Wallace. And what about Obama’s minister for 20 years, Rev. Jeremiah Wright? His “liberation theology” went unnoticed by Obama even as Obama was sitting in the pews of the United Methodist Church on the South Side of Chicago.

Ms. Johnston even claims, like so many Obama supporters, not to have heard McCain decrying such statements. Why hasn’t Johnston heard McCain saying we “do not have to be scared” of Obama as president and scolding crowds who have yelled out against her candidate?

William Chapman

Rockport