Not that my Congressman Peter King needs or wants me to defend his voting his conscience on the president impeachment issue, but the lunatic fringe of the Republican Party needs some advice before they further embarrass registered Republicans, like me, by trying to punish him for not voting the party line.

While they may not agree with Congressman King on his stand on all of the impeachment issues, nor do I, he was elected not to serve the Republican majority, but to serve the people who elected him, and do it to the best of his ability and I sincerely believe that he is trying to do just that.

If the Republican leadership "punishes" him for not toeing the party line, they are also punishing his constituents, and I resent that abuse of misplaced power. Unfortunately, this pay back approach is all too common in government today by both major parties and is beginning to erode local politics, where the word "independent" is becoming history as is loyalty to family, friends, employees, etc.

It is unfortunate that some individuals are being deluded into thinking that they can live in a perfect world, where everything is a simple yes or no and where everyone should be of one opinion. Their opinion. But, that is not a world of reality.

As a matter of fact it would be a very dangerous world, if all dissent were stifled and all discussions were controlled by the majority, trampling on minority rights. Yes, majority rules, but not without the awesome responsibility of the majority not injuriously trampling on the rights of the minority, no matter how disproportionately small the minority group is.

There is an important quote from a famous scholar, James William Fulbright, that goes like this:

"...We must learn to explore all options and possibilities that confront us in a complex and rapidly changing world. We must learn to welcome and not fear the voices of dissent. We must dare to think about 'unthinkable things' because when things become unthinkable, thinking stops and action becomes mindless."

Abraham Lincoln once said:

"That community is already in the process of dissolution where each man begins to eye his neighbor as a possible enemy, where nonconformity with the accepted creed, political as well as religious, is a mark of dissatisfaction; where denunciation, without specification or backing, takes the place of evidence; where orthodoxy chokes freedom of dissent; where faith in the eventual supremacy of reason has become so timid that we dare not enter our convictions in the open lists, to win or lose."

Therefore, I am reminding both parties that their members who dissented from their leaders' wills in the impeachment proceedings were doing the people's business and should be allowed to do the people's business as they see it, whether the party leaders or I agree with them or not. Any punitive action against them will look just like it will be, punitive action against the people and will result in the further erosion of the whatever respect the public has for our fledgling political system.

Robert S. Thompson