November 4, 1990
Brian O’Neill snickered and smirked his way through a column which insulted Lawrence Welk on Oct. 26.
It was obviously his morally illiterate, knee-jerk reaction to Mr. Welk’s grateful government that will “splurge” $500,000 to restore Mr. Welk’s boyhood home. Lawrence Welk is a genuine American hero. For openers, he is honest, gentle, reverent, compassionate and humble to a fault. A modern-day Horatio Alger, Mr. Welk steadfastly believed in God, the Puritan work ethic, and the Golden Rule.
A favorite on the American music scene for almost half a century, this 87-year-old genuine American Gothic never once disgraced his family, scandalized his profession, played a dirty song, took the name of God in vain, insulted the flag, dealt in drugs or knowingly hired anyone who did.
Long after the world has forgotten such moral cretins as Andrew Dice Clay, 2 Live Crew, the Keating Five, Hanoi Jane Fonda and their ilk, tens of thousands of Americans will still be devoutly trekking to the restored North Dakota prairie home of this God-fearing American patriot.
JACK O’NEIL
Sewickley