I was disappointed to return from a summer on temporary duty and find you had removed Arianna Huffington and Ann Coulter as weekly staples in your paper. Juxtaposing their diverse points of view in your opinion section was a brilliant idea and should be brought back.

It amused me over the past year the number of “moderates” who wrote in for canceling Coulter, but never Huffington. Point in fact, a true open mind would be able to respectfully understand both opinions opined by these very intelligent women, however extreme, in order to formulate its own point of view. Without such varying perspectives, how is a moderate to know if he’s still in the middle or if he has drifted, particularly if he always finds just one side offensive?

I hope the editors decide to bring back the Monday pairing to help broaden the paper’s capacity to engage its readers with a contrasting, if not controversial, set of viewpoints. True freedom of opinion and thought is not as threatened when no opinion is given, but when a small vocal minority determines what opinions will or will not be heard.

Maj. Rick TaylorMadrid