Editor,

Just because you can write an editorial like the one in the May 14 paper doesn’t mean that you should.

First you compare the Citizens of Ebey’s Reserve to the Westboro Baptist Church, and then you say they’re not comparable, as if that mild disclaimer could erase the image you’ve put in the mind of the reader.

Then you say displaying the flag upside-down was “unnecessarily offensive,” and you imply that it was a “sign of disrespect,” because it was “perceived” as a slap in the face of the Navy community.

You said you think COER should have taken the high road and not antagonized fellow islanders.

When you look at the letters and comments of these fellow islanders, you can’t help noticing the relish with which they mock and jeer the distress of those of us who live under the planes, and malign us with every weapon in their sick imaginations.

Scott Gray Smith and Joe Kunzler, among many others, call us anti-American, unpatriotic liars.

Tim Cook calls us KKK terrorists and an anti-military hate group, and has even referred to our dirty nappies.

There are more than 300 comments online at your report of the May 9 COER vigil, the vast majority vying to outdo each other in verbally abusing us.

This is the high road? These are the people you think COER ought to take pains not to antagonize?

The word “unconscionable” has been used in this controversy. Comparing COER to the Westboro Baptist Church was unconscionable, and your disclaimer that that’s not what you were doing after you did it only means you don’t want to take responsibility for having done it.

Ann Adams

Oak Harbor