The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

To my surprise yesterday morning, I received an email with the subject title of, "Douche????" from a name I didn't recognize at first - Thomas Ritter. After I read his email, which I'll get to in a minute, I had to backtrack on recent writings of mine, before finally searching my blog for "douche." Low-and-behold, I stumbled across the name Thomas J. Ritter - a fifth-grade schoolteacher in the state of Texas. On December 4th, I read an article about Mr. Ritter which prompted me to write a blog about it. You see, Mr. Ritter sent President Obama a critical letter with regard to the Affordable Care Act, where he said this: "This bill has caused such a divisive, dirisive [sic], and toxic environment ... The reality is that any citizen that disagrees with your administration is targeted and ridiculed. I hesitated to write for fear of some kind of retribution. I watched you make fun of tea baggers and your press secretary make fun of Ms. Palin which wa...

While the letter's authenticity is still in question, it is being reported by many right-wing media outlets and at least one more mainstream one that President Barack Obama has sent a handwritten response letter to Texas fifth-grade schoolteacher Thomas J. Ritter, who had sent the president a letter criticizing the Affordable Care Act. In Ritter's letter he wrote: "This bill has caused such a divisive, dirisive [sic], and toxic environment ... The reality is that any citizen that disagrees with your administration is targeted and ridiculed. I hesitated to write for fear of some kind of retribution . I watched you make fun of tea baggers and your press secretary make fun of Ms. Palin which was especially beneath the dignity of the White House." President Obama allegedly responded with these words: "I believe that health care reform will be the right thing for the country ... It certainly wasn't the smart 'political' thing! And I hope that in th...