Pat Hatfield - My 2 Cents' Worth

Why do I write an opinion piece?

Mostly because I’m opinionated!

We live in a great country, the greatest in the world. If we’re not willing to speak up and say what we think, and put ourselves on the line for what we believe and for our freedoms, we may as well live in a dictatorship, and we eventually will.

The right to free speech is one of the most important rights upon which this country was founded, and it must be safeguarded.

I have a soft spot for voiceless underdogs, and if I can lend them my voice, then I feel I’ve done a good thing.

Things I see sometimes touch me, and I want to write more than can be put into a news story. Conservation and protecting the environment are a couple of examples. As I get older, I see more clearly how fragile life is, and how fragile our beautiful island home, the Earth, is.

I get e-mails from people who want to convince me I’m wrong, and there is no global warming. That’s OK; I’ll defend their right to speak, as I hope they would defend mine.