I found that Robert Vetter’s letter of Jan. 2, “Dean Gets Religion,” to be an excessive and unfair attack. Especially galling to me was his statement “Sorry Howard, but most of us in the New South can read, unlike Vermont.” I have a nephew who received an excellent education in the state of Vermont.

I challenge Mr. Vetter to search the Dean Web site, DeanforAmerica.com, and see if he finds anything to justify his following statement: “Even Howard Dean is creating his own socialist ‘Jesus religion’ to bait his leftist hook for us dumb Southerners with Confederate flags on our pickup trucks.”

Most voters hold a mix of conservative and liberal views. President Bush, while a conservative in domestic matters, is very liberal in his use of deficit spending and military force abroad. The use of labels to denigrate persons is a destructive habit.

In conclusion, I would remind Mr. Vetter that Howard Dean is running to be president of the United States, not Iran, where there is no separation of church and state. We should strive to encourage civil debate on the issues and not descend into the realm of personal mud-slinging. We will get plenty of that from the barrage of negative TV political ads that are just beginning.

Ted Weatherly

Carthage