More respect deserved

I'm writing in regard to comments posted on the Southeast Missourian website relating to Morley Swingle. For disclosure, I've only met Mr. Swingle a time or two and doubt he would know me if we passed on the street. The professional nature of his job is such that at times you're going to make someone mad no matter what you do, and comments about a public official's job performance go with the territory of the job.

When it comes to one's private life, however, what I find disgusting are those people -- hiding in the shadows of the Internet behind the anonymity of a pseudonym -- who are willing to cast stones at others for their alleged sins. In fact, willing doesn't describe it. The tone of many of their comments indicates they relish doing so and apparently take some perverse satisfaction from it. If asked to describe these people and their actions, I think words like "despicable" and "cowardly" sum it up pretty well.

In providing a venue for the posting of these comments, the Southeast Missourian would do well to take a closer look at what crosses the line from comments about a person's job performance to an invasion of their privacy. Even if allegations about a person's private life are completely true, until there is hard evidence that it has compromised their public job performance, they deserve a little more respect for their privacy than has been displayed.

MICHAEL BUCHANAN, Cape Girardeau