The Shadow Respond to Bill O'Reilly

I know the evil that lurks in the hearts of men.

You have heard The Shadow say this many times. And it is The Shadow's job to expose that evil and defeat it. That is the purpose of this entry today.

Two days ago, voters in San Francisco had 2 propositions on their ballot:

• Proposition H -- This initiative would ban the sale and manufacture of guns in San Francisco. It would also prohibit residents of San Francisco from owning a handgun.
• Proposition I -- This was a non-binding policy statement from the people of San Francisco to ban military recruiters from San Francisco public schools.

Talk show host Bill O'Reilly -- with whom The Shadow has never seen eye to eye with -- decided to criticize San Francisco voters on their decision to pass both Proposition H & I (The Shadow should note that there is currently a lawsuit filed to prevent Proposition H from taking effect on January 1, 2006). O'Reilly said the following on his radio talk show yesterday:

You know, if I'm the president of the United States, I walk right into Union Square, I set up my little presidential podium and I say, "Listen, citizens of San Francisco, if you vote against military recruiting, you're not going to get another nickel in federal funds."

The Shadow respects the views of Mr. O'Reilly and if this is all that he had to say on the matter, The Shadow would just dismiss it as right-wing criticism of this city. But he went further:

Fine. You want to be your own country? Go right ahead. And if al Qaeda comes in here and blows you up, we're not going to do anything about it. We're going to say, look, every other place in America is off limits to you except San Francisco. You want to blow up the Coit Tower? Go ahead.

The Shadow sees no humor in this whatsoever. This is irresponsible journalism at its best.

HOW DARE YOU, BILL O'REILLY, MAKE AN OPEN INVITATION TO A TERRORIST ORGANIZATION TO DESTROY SAN FRANCISCO!!!

To imply that San Francisco residents are not patriotic is crazy. We in the San Francisco area love the United States and are loyal to this country as any other city in this country. We may not agree with the rest of the country on certain issues (medical marijuana comes to mind), but we are not disloyal to this country. The Shadow is deeply insulted by this.

The Shadow calls for Bill O'Reilly to issue a public apology to the people of San Francisco for this irresponsible piece of crap that O'Reilly calls journalism. While The Shadow believes in the freedoms provided in the First Amendement to the Constitution, this just crosses the line!!!

The Shadow will be watching you Mr. O'Reilly!