The author of the May 14 Letter of the Day ("From an independent's perch, Democrats look out of touch") claims to be an independent. Maybe, but his perch must be so high that the altitude has affected his ability to remember a few facts.
For example, he characterizes the Obama administration as staunchly defending the need to keep Guantanamo open when, in fact, Republicans blocked President Obama from closing Guantanamo by preventing the detainees from being moved to the United States.
He apparently opposes using drones to fight terrorists even though it might be far better than sending more than 300,000 troops and mercenaries and billions of dollars of equipment into a country.
He criticizes the president for trying to exit Afghanistan, a long and incompetently fought war by the Bush administration (the troops excelled, but the leadership made mistakes), as quickly as possible without creating new and more serious problems for the Afghans.
Also, he must assume that because he happened to work for a benevolent One Percenter, there is no greed and selfishness among the very wealthy.
Finally, he characterizes Jack Black as having made the country a little dumber, and as typifying the attendees at the fundraiser for President Obama at George Clooney's home, ignoring the fact that Mr. Black has been active in supporting many charities, including Stand Up to Cancer, Unicef and Children in Need.
I would guess that most of the attendees have generously given back to their communities and the world.
WARREN BLECHERT, EXCELSIOR
