Beating a Dead Horse UPDATE: Yup, still dead…

Dear Editor,
Ben Olson saw fit to title my Sept. 8 letter to the editor “Beating a Dead Horse…” (more about that later). In my letter I quoted part of Ben Olson’s hateful May 26 rant against me. I didn’t address a part of that rant which was: “Let me tell you this: the articles you barrage me with under your pen name are rubbish.”
One of the articles that Olson refers to as being rubbish was titled “Busted in Augusta”. “Busted in Augusta” took place in 1965 while I was in the U.S. Army and stationed at Fort Gordon, Ga. In the story I describe how one of my black army buddies, who happened to be Herbie Hancock’s cousin, and I went to the aid of a black GI who was being mistreated by a white MP in downtown Augusta (as you can imagine, my big mouth got us both arrested).
So I ask you this Olson, why do you find my trying to help a black GI who was being mistreated by a white MP to be rubbish?! I can easily see how a black-hating racist would find my article rubbish, so why do you Olson? Your usual excuse of it being poorly written will not wash this time. I could write something that rivals Shakespeare or Hemmingway [sic] and the Reader would not publish it as long as I use the pen name Rabbi Ayatollah Chrishna.
BTW, as for the title Olson gave my last letter, “Beating a Dead Horse…”, it was Olson who killed that horse when he put his “Holocaust denial” saddle on it and rode it over his well traveled cliff of ignorance.

Lee Santa
Sandpoint