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 The Chronicle welcomes you online! Please feel free to respond to these editorials or letters to the editor by sending your letters to the editor.

We condense letters; most, as published, won't exceed 300 words. A letter must include the writer's name and city, which will be published, and an address and telephone number for verification, which will not be published. Writers may be limited to one letter every 30 days. Open letters, letters to third parties and poetry are not considered. Letters from people living outside the Chronicle's circulation area usually are not considered.

Says deny forum to 'hate letters'

Web posted December 26, 1999

 Have a thought? Go to the @ugusta Forums.

Editor, The Chronicle

The Rev. Dan King's Dec. 4 letter really resonated with me. Why is it that we are horrified when people are brutally murdered because of their race, sexual orientation, or religion, yet we tolerate hate-filled letters and callers to talk shows that establish the climate in which hate crimes occur? Denying the purveyors of hate and intolerance an editorial forum is no more censorship than refusing to print letters advocating pedophilia or violence.

Richard Hogue (letter, Dec. 19) states that the Rev. Tim Fellows' views need to be respected. Why? Uninformed, hateful, intolerant opinions should be condemned.

I have yet to read a letter from Rev. Fellows that was uplifting or urged people to love others or called people to live up to their better natures. Mr. Hogue's letter grossly misrepresents Rev. King's comments. He attacks Rev. King for things he neither said, implied nor believes.

Rev. King has a life-long personal and professional commitment to free speech. Interestingly, Mr. Hogue ends his letter protesting intolerance by implying those of us who do not agree with his brand of Christianity will be subjected to everlasting torture.

As the major newspaper in the Central Savannah River Area, The Chronicle plays the critical role in setting the tone of public discourse. The inflammatory rhetoric in its editorials and the choice of letters it prints undermines its own stands. ...

Andy C. Reese, Augusta