By David Heiller

I was scanning the AM radio dial recently and caught a talk show host waxing eloquent about how people who are so critical of our country should just leave.

I truly canít understand that mentality, and I never have since it first surfaced during the Vietnam War.

ìAmerica, love it or leave it!î was the two-bit slogan then.

But thatís bogus, and anyone who has studied American history knows it.

Being critical of our leaders or policies is about as American as Mom and apple pie.

People who think Michael Moore is tough on the president should read the stuff that circulated when the founding fathers were hashing out the Constitution. Those guys were mean, slanderous, libelous, and sometimes downright physically dangerous.

And what came of it? Just a democracy that has freedom of speech as its first amendment.

If weíre going to ask extremists to leave, it had better be well represented by both sides of the political isles. There are plenty to choose from on the right, people exercising their freedom of speech in a spirit of meanness that Michael Moore can only admire. Just scan that old AM radio dial.

A couple other things bother me when I listen to right-wing talk show hosts.

One, they claim that there is a left-wing media bias. But most of what I hear on the radio is just the opposite. Men and women with hard edges to their voices and an attitude of ìjust try and disagree with me.î And nobody does disagree with them. Who wants to call and get ridiculed or put down or called ìout of touch.î

Thatís the other thing that bothers me. I hear that ìliberalsî are ìout of touchî with our country, our morals, with mainstream America.

But the people I know that fall under that label arenít out of touch with anything, whatever that term means. They go to church, go to high school basketball games, listen to music, eat at the pancake breakfast, work hard at their jobs, pay their taxes.

Do you know anyone who is ìout of touch?î I really canít name one person.

People who dissent, who challenge, who ask questions, yes, who criticize, are very much in-touch to me. I donít always agree with them, but thatís the way it ought to be.

Think about it. We are trying to surgically implant democracy in Iraq, and some of the biggest supporters of the war are people intolerant of criticism. Quite the irony.

I know Iím painting with a broad brush, but what seems to be missing more and more in our fine society is civility, politeness, and respecting another personís opinion. And those basic values are sadly lacking from many radio talk show hosts.

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