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Singleton should join the group

Dear Editor:Monday morning I joined a group of about 10 valley residents under the flagpole at Carbondale’s town hall. The flag was respectfully lowered to half-mast, the number on the sign below was changed to reflect U.S. and coalition troops killed in the last week in Iraq and Afghanistan, and we each read 10 of the deceased soldiers names. In every case, the reading of the names was preceded by a phrase such as “in honorable memory of … ” It was a somber ceremony as we bowed our heads and paid tribute to each person and their family for their ultimate sacrifice. Regardless of our individual views on the war (which were never expressed before, during or after the ceremony), every one of us feels compassion for those lost to battle.I suspect that the valley’s foremost opponent of our constitutional right to free speech, Francilynn Douglas Singleton, is responsible for the handmade hate messages attached weekly to the sign on the flagpole at Carbondale Town Hall. In a recent letter to the editor, Ms. Singleton threatened to take legal action against the town of Carbondale for the display of what she deems a “ghoulish death toll sign, with its insinuation of wasted deaths.” Apparently she takes issue with the fact that, unlike her beloved president, we citizens actually care about the soldiers who gave their lives for America, and instead of hiding or ignoring the deaths as the Bush administration does, we dare to speak the soldiers names aloud.If Ms. Singleton is truly a patriot and supports the troops, perhaps rather than scribbling cowardly threats and false accusations against the citizens and public officials of Carbondale on scraps of posterboard, she should join the group that devotedly honors the soldiers’ sacrifice every Monday morning.Sue GrayCarbondale

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