Olsen is no Goldwater

James Olsen is no Goldwater. Goldwater was a champion of the underdog and the disenfranchised. He worked closely with the Native Americans in Arizona and personally preserved a significant collection of Hopi dolls and other artifacts which are now displayed at the Heard Museum in Phoenix.

Barry Goldwater was a gentleman and a gentle man, neither of which describe James Olsen.

Mr. Olson, when you took the oath as an officer in the military you swore to uphold the Constitution of the United States, not just the First Amendment. I suspect your defense of the First is more a defense of what you want to be the “truth” and your right to spew it and skew it any way you wish. I too, defend the First Amendment through membership in the ACLU, which I first joined in 1959.

Perhaps Mr. Olsen and Francis Jacobson could elaborate on not only the First but the fourth, and fifth Amendments. I would also be interested in what “school reform” is, in Mr. Olsen’s opinion. Does it involve the teaching of what surrounded the incarceration of the Bainbridge Japanese community?

Also, what defines a fiscal conservative? Please be very specific don’t just blow off with jingoes and platitudes.

Richard Culp

Bainbridge Island