Political ad an insult to law, country

AS A LIFELONG Republican, I was shocked and dismayed to see Kerry Healey's recent television ad in which she suggests that Deval Patrick is somehow unfit to serve as governor because he defended the constitutional or statutory rights of a citizen convicted of a crime.

When I told my father in 1991 that I felt guilty that I was a young man who had nearly enlisted in the Marines and all these guys my age were staged in a hostile desert risking their lives, he responded, ``Your mother and I are just so glad you are here and not there. Do not worry, you will defend this country in your own way someday."

Again in 2003, six years after I had entered the Massachusetts bar, when I told him about my profound respect for our courageous men and women in uniform who were once again fighting overseas and my lingering regret for not having entered the military , he said, ``You are an attorney now and every day in court you defend the same Constitution for which my comrades and I fought in the Korean War over 50 years ago. So, you have absolutely nothing to feel guilty about."

So, I ask those who prepared this unfortunate advertisement: Would you like to step forward, look my father in his face, and tell him he was mistaken about his son?

WILLIAM S. SMITH
Holden