It is time to call a spade a spade.

Since the first of the year, severely disturbed men in Boston, Maine, Pittsburgh, Connecticut, Kansas and Florida have committed murder in the name of their cause -- as a matter of fact, twice in Florida. And now the Holocaust Museum.

Are we or are we not a nation of laws? Civil disobedience, as practiced by Dr. King, involved breaking civil laws, not criminal ones.

More important, it brought danger or death only to the person who wished to change them. That took true courage; gunning down unarmed people does not. In fact, it is the mark of a coward.

More to the point, any American who kills other Americans in the name of his or her cause is a fanatic, plain and simple. And if we don't figure out a way to curb them, or those who egg them on, without impeding any of our dearly won Constitutional rights, then none of us will be safe.

And al-Qaida will have won without lifting a finger.

Nancy Horn,

Watsontown