To the editor:

This is a response to the letter from Mike Povich of Festus in the Aug. 16 Call.

I find his reference to Joe Biden as the “alleged” vice president offensive. The author thinks he is being cute by implying the president secretly faked his birth in Hawaii so that he could become president some day, even though he has produced a valid birth certificate to disprove this, which legitimate news organizations have accepted as fact. That these conspiracy advocates are given a serious voice just shows the worst parts of our society.

The author also asserts that Vice President Biden and President Barack Obama have never really worked for a living. But the president has been a lawyer, a professor of law, a community organizer, a state senator and a U.S. senator, all of which are much better preparation for the presidency than either cutting the grass or refinishing floors, which the author deems so valuable.

The author blasts homosexuals as going against both God and medical hygiene. I guess the author has not heard of syphilis or gonorrhea or noticed the several homosexuals who attend church on Sundays. I believe it is the same God who is worshipped at these churches. I do not think there is a separate gay god.

Also, the author was upset the president wanted to reduce nuclear weapons with the help of the Russian prime minister. I guess the author fears some Communist conspiracy, even though Communism essentially ended with the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989. I believe keeping nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists who might steal them is a good idea.

I believe President Obama is a good man who can lead us in the right direction. The author’s portrayal of him is slightly off-kilter, to say the least.