Alan Keyes

Your article on Alan Keyes was interesting and thought-provoking (“Longshot Keyes Aims to Be Heard Above the GOP Din,” Jan. 26). You were overly fair to a man who has condemned the press as being racist and liberal and whose primary goal is to increase his speaking fees.

Keyes represents everything that is wrong with the modern Republican Party. He is mean-spirited, intolerant of the diverse nature of our society and wants to erase the religious freedoms found in the 1st Amendment by establishing his religious beliefs as the foundation for governance.

Keyes may deliver his views with eloquence and passion; that does not make him right. It simply makes him a better speaker than the rest. The nation needs to be wary of such demagogues and how accepting their style leads to a coarsening of American political discourse.

MICHAEL J. PETRELLA

Los Angeles

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Since Keyes was so “outraged” at the student protests at Cornell against the Vietnam War that he left for Harvard, why didn’t he do something a bit more patriotic? Like, say, join the military.

JACK SCHULTZ

Lakewood

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I heard a quote on TV that Al Gore had gone from “wooden Indian” to “junkyard attack dog” in the so-called debates. On the Republican side, I would add my comparison of Keyes as the articulate Dr. Spock in a cave of Neanderthals. Keyes was so articulate and concise.

ANN WRINKLE

Exeter