I cannot remember listening to WDOD. I tune my radio to the AM dial when I am on the interstate and in need of road condition info. However, I am sorry I missed the opportunity. Gauging WDOD’s import by the comments posted here, it must have been something to hear. It sounds as if one could have become patriotic, Christ-like, and wholesome merely by tuning in.

Look at the words chosen by Dr. Hammett and others in the opinion pieces regarding the change in WDOD’s format: revolting, squalor, decadent, polluting, putrid, ugly, negative, undesired, and disservice. The juxtaposition of these words alongside patriotism, Christian moral character, and good and moral people is jolting. The words above are as abrasive and dissonant as any noise that could emanate from the future far left format.

I normally read through the opinion pieces without hesitation, but these about WDOD have given me pause. It evinces the devolution of civilized political debate. It shows that otherwise good people have begun to resort to mudslinging. Rush Limbaugh and Air America have won. We have sunk to their level. The allegiance shown by people to the Republicans and Democrats is no mere ideology – it verges on idolatry.

It is no longer taboo to vilify your worthy adversary, it is expected. To be politically successful you need a moniker like the Hammer. You need to throw around words like wimp or the ones chosen by Dr. Hammett above. If you have the vocabulary of our vice-president, you may even need to spout a four letter expletive every now and then.

It is evident that there is something other than the loss of an oldies station at issue in Dr. Hammett’s piece. I think the Left’s criticism of those in authority bothers Authoritarians. The resultant strategy of self-styled patriots seems today to be in quieting dissent not encouraging it. Why else would Dr. Hammett and others clamor so against a radio program that they claim will be unsuccessful?

And since Dr. Hammett wants to take an opportunity to invoke Patriotism and the Sacred in his discussion of the relatively insignificant workings of an AM radio station, I will shout from my soap box as well. I am firm in my belief that the American People hit the mute button on the Patriots and the Gospel well before the nineteen sixties. Patrick Henry and the Sermon on the Mount have long been ignored because people care more about commerce than life, liberty and love.

If you have to wake dead Bostonians and Virginians in your political discourse, please remember that they were not conservatives but revolutionaries. If you resort to the Alpha and the Omega when discussing tariffs and taxes, just stop. I don’t think he is a Republican (or a Democrat for that matter).

Steve Smith
Signal Mountain
steven.e.smith@comcast.net