In his Feb. 6 letter to The Press, Steve Bell goes out of his way to depict himself as the Robin Hood for all ethnic groups and slayer of the Regans when in reality his letter presents libelous drivel.

The irony of this whole fiasco is that the students the people seem to be so worried about protecting from racism would not have heard of this matter had it not been blown completely out of proportion through sparring letters to the editor, this one included.

My unsolicited recommendation to Bell and the leaders of the Kootenai Task Force on Human Relations is to “lighten up and get a life.” Bell says he is going to write the “Spokane NAACP” and ask that they “investigate” Regan’s comment. He wants to bring a Spokane-based organization into Idaho to monitor what Idahoans do. Not only that, but the monitoring agency would be the NAACP whose lobbying effort is certainly racist when they continue to seek quotas for black enrollment in college, no matter how well qualified the white students are. This is reverse discrimination and the policy should have been terminated a decade ago. If the NAACP investigation becomes reality it will be like throwing gasoline on hot embers. Enrollment in the Aryan Nations will increase ten-fold.

It is time all people not be so thin-skinned about comments taken out of context. All ethnic groups have had their day being the butt of jokes. I can’t believe that we have become so politically correct that a self-acknowledged black president cannot be called “black and scary” without someone getting uptight about the comment. Ongoing trillion dollar deficits scare me as we march our way to bankruptcy. Demeaning presidents didn’t start with Obama; it is safe to say that Steve Bell probably enjoyed a good laugh when media artists depicted George Bush as an illiterate Texas cowboy.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars are donated by local individuals and churches annually to aid the oppressed ethnic groups in Africa and elsewhere around the world; so northern Idaho is a far better place to live than Bell would have us believe.

LEONARD BRANT

Rathdrum