Anne Sagaris of Poulsbo was printed in the Herald asking, “Who is Jack Hamilton? What is the purpose of his column in the newspaper? … What is his background, what are his credentials and what is his standing that we should give any credibility to whatever he says? … Is this supposed to be some sort of folksy local color for the paper?”
She then claims Hamilton doesn’t back up anything he says with any facts, and then does not cite any concrete examples of such herself. I doubt she really wants to know because it is incredibly easy to answer any of these questions she posed with minimal research. (FACT: Not very long ago, through this very same venue, many like-minded people stated vociferously, constantly repeating each other, that Hamilton is an “ideologue.” Hard to miss if you were here.)
Based on this citation, I’m sure you can find better, Hamilton is not nobody with nothing from nowhere. From what I’ve read he’s provided at many times factual-based support for his arguments and historical perspective. Occasionally, facts seem lacking to me and many of his conclusions differ from mine. Sagaris also goes on about how Hamilton is using his paper as a personal blog for his personal comments and opinions. I thoroughly disagree with this assessment. I’d sooner fault someone for not having his own opinions and I would be hard pressed to claim that nobody shares his. It would be difficult to show that very few share in them. In fact, I’ll just stick my neck out there and claim to the whole county that I sometimes agree with him.
And so, apparently, goes my credibility. I find her letter, at best, unhelpful to anybody. Nothing personal. Of those eager to introduce Hamilton, I would be somewhere in the back of the long line as I myself really don’t know that much about him. If you want to know who Hamilton is, just ask Hamilton, not the whole county. Being a public figure, he wouldn’t be difficult to find. Even better, state specifically what you didn’t like about what he said and illuminate us with your facts and reasoning; then you might claim to have risen above Hamilton. And to the Herald, I’d rather not see any more personal attack letters, reading them is lost time I’ll never get back. But, of course, as Benjamin Franklin demonstrated, personal attacks move more papers. What do I know?
Daniel Brown
Kingston
