Re: "Respecting Fundamentals-Punching bag stunt oversteps partisan bounds," yesterday's Editorials.
I'm one of the Mothers Opposing Bush, and my daughter attended Sunday's event in Reverchon Park.
While there, she made a new friend. She ate a red, white and blue cupcake. She bounced with the other kids in the Bounce House.
What she did not do-and all but two or three of the 30-plus kids who attended did not do-was play with the punching bag that one mother brought on her own initiative to the event.
Should the bag have been there? No.
Were our children encouraged to punch it? No, as your own reporter can attest. I'm dismayed by the photo you've published twice. It is grossly unrepresentative of the spirit of the play date that we attended.
You use the word "obnoxious" in your editorial, and decried strident partisanship. I couldn't agree more. Why? Because, as of yesterday morning, I'd received more than 250 hate calls. They used the "f" word, death threats, threatened visits to my home-and one threatened my child.
I joined the Mothers Opposing Bush because I want to protect my daughter from a future defined by an administration that has waged war and hampered health care and environmental concerns. I'm a sadder, wiser Mother Opposing Bush today-and, thanks to death threats, more committed than ever.
Melody A. Townsel, Dallas