My letter

The Hill newspaper, the paper of Capitol Hill, ran my letter to the editor this week. (I realize upon second reading that maybe "juxtaposition with" is more grammatically acceptable than "juxtaposition to." Well, what's done is done.

Patrick Henry’s words apt in reply to Cornyn
From Robert Raible:
Civil liberties might not mean much to the dead, as Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) believes (“Civil liberties don’t matter much ‘after you’re dead,’ Cornyn says on spy case,” Dec. 20), but they mean a lot to those of us still alive.

Sen. Russ Feingold’s (D-Wis.) juxtaposition of Patrick Henry’s famous speech on liberty to Cornyn’s petulant epigram (“None of your civil liberties matter much after you’re dead”) was brilliant. It showed the whole arc of American oratory, from the zenith to the nadir. Henry’s words were noble and ennobling, while Cornyn’s were poor in form and appalling in content.

Silver Spring, Md.