Dear Editor,

Allow me to respond to Ellie Schermerhorn's letter to the editor in the March 7 edition of the Sierra Star.

I look forward to the Letters to the Editor each week because normally they deal with meaningful critiques of articles in previous editions or provide contributions to debates of ongoing issues for our region. Ms. Schermerhorn's letter did neither. It was just a personal rant about not liking what I write, with a bit of name calling thrown in for good measure. And the stab at my faith, indicating that Jesus was only a "Teacher" who would not want me as one of His disciples was an especially venomous touch.

My guess is, Ellie regularly attends the Democratic Club each month with Peter Cavanaugh and felt the need to defend her "hero" from my less than complimentary responses to some of his recent articles. And that's okay. Differences of opinion are to be expected and encouraged in a free society. I just wish she could have done me the courtesy of actually doing some thoughtful research into the points I presented in my letters and then provided her counter arguments in an informed response.

Unfortunately, like so many these days who lack the energy or desire to mount a coherent response, she resorted to misrepresentation of the facts and character assassination to demean me instead of addressing the issues. Peter did the same kind of thing when he demeaned members of the NRA as "not really Americans" and claimed all conservatives where simple minded. So I challenged him on his comments as being counterproductive to an informed debate.

Ellie's response shows she clearly missed the point of my writings and contributed nothing to that informed exchange. She is clearly Peter's disciple.

Steve Hall, North Fork