Intolerant Refrain
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Few lines in Los Angeles Times Magazine annals can compare for crassness and bigotry with Bob Hope’s in “Funny Man” (Feb. 1, by Margy Rochlin): “During Vietnam, a couple of people called me a warmonger, but . . . the FBI chased them out of town. They were all drunks, you know--bums. Probably defectors or something.”
In other words, old Ski Nose is still singing his arrogant, intolerant refrain: “Anyone who disagrees with me is no good and should be run out of town. I’m the superpatriot and my word is the only one that counts”--even in this era when many sincere, conscientious people (conservative as well as liberal) are beginning to reassess the Vietnam experience.
Some of us didn’t think Leslie Townes Hope was funny a generation before Vietnam, and his warped and reactionary views during that period merely reinforced our convictions.
David R. Moss
Los Angeles
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