Just who is Sonny Starks, the retired, award-winning rabble-rouser? Taking pot-shots at the First Amendment and attacking a hardworking local businessman shows me that this retired sailor has too much time on his hands.

He seems an expert in the lyrics of rap and hip-hop; is this first hand knowledge or did he just read someone else’s diatribe and regurgitate it with evil intent? Mr. Starks has the God-given right to turn off material that he finds offensive, as do we all. Sadly, the First Amendment allows Mr. Starks to make personal attacks on Dave Willis and attempt to launch a campaign bent on the total destruction of this highly personable and friendly proprietor: a far greater evil in my eyes than some rapster off in “musicland” expressing himself in profanities.

I’ve been in Dave’s music store and the music playing was nice, not nasty; the in-store inventory wasn’t the “trash” that Mr. Starks has his panties in a bunch about; and I was able to order CDs of very hard to find music, which incidentally didn’t have any naughty lyrics. And before I forget: Mr. Starks, why are you so silent regarding the role of parents and families in monitoring and directing the activities of children?

Sonny Starks has made this “evil music” his vendetta, but he’s made David Willis his public battlefield; and whether we like it or not, he has involved the entire community in his windmill titling. Sonny Starks wants us, as a community, to condemn Dave Willis and destroy him. As a native of Oak Harbor I say that as a community we should support our local business persons. Especially when they run a clean, friendly store and go out of their way to serve the needs of the community.

If Mr. Starks wants to stop the proliferation of music with lyrics he finds offensive, then perhaps he should do something constructive about it: dust off his Kodak and create something he finds of value and market it. If today’s youth are spending their money on good photography they won’t have it to spend on bad music.

And to Sonny: as Christians we are to lead by example, leaving the judging and punishing to God, or did you forget to read your Bible while studying for that bachelor’s degree in church ministry?

Curtis C. Woolever

Oak Harbor