‘Traitor’ Charge Against Hayden
It appalls me to see a supposedly responsible, rational legislator such as Assemblyman Gil Ferguson (R-Newport Beach) demonstrate such prejudicial, irrational and unthinking behavior as when he labled Assemblyman Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica) a “traitor” for his stand on the Vietnam War (Times, May 3).
Such slanders are nothing more than McCarthyism at its worst. In so many words, what Ferguson said was, “If you hold an opinion that differs from mine, then you are not only wrong, but anti-American, anti-God and probably unfit to be a citizen of this country.” Ferguson did, in fact, state that, according to his reading of the California Constitution, Hayden has no right to be a member of the Assembly.
What I would suggest is that the true traitors to this country are those who attempt to stifle dissent through personal attacks, those whose sterile view of “Americanism” does not allow people to resist the government when the government is in error, and those whose notion of constitutional freedom is the freedom to believe what they do and nothing else.
According to these criteria, it is Gil Ferguson who has no right to be in office, not Tom Hayden.
MICHAEL A. PEMBERTON
La Jolla
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