In a recent letter to the editor in my local newspaper, a fellow resident criticized the newspaper for placing a story of war protesters on page one while putting a story of a mother and son who are soldiers on page five. The letter writer concluded his rant by questioning which story Americans would be more proud of reading.

While I understand the letter writers feelings for the mother and son soldiers, I also get the sense the letter writer doesn’t understand that dissent is a fundamental right of our country.

I hold that mother and son in high regard for being compelled to answer the call of military service. And I thank them for defending our country, our freedom and the ideals put forth in our Constitution that make up the foundation of our country.

Clearly the letter writer does not have a working knowledge of our Constitution and history. One of the fundamental rights of a republic — our republic — is freedom of speech.

Exercising your freedom of speech is one of the best ways a civilian can honor those who defend our freedom on the front lines.

These soldiers are defending our republic and defending our Constitution. Our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan are fighting to give those countries the chance to form republics similar to ours.

It seems the letter writer wants to honor the soldiers for spreading our form of government in other places, but also feels exercising our Constitutional rights here, in America, is somehow nothing to be proud of.

This robot clearly can not think for himself.

Without freedom of speech, without dissent this country would not exist. We would still be answering to and taking orders from England.

Both our soldiers and the exercise of our Constitutional rights and freedoms are something to be proud of.

Think for yourself and turn off the T.V.