Editor, Times-Union: There is an error of fact in Charlene Witham’s letter of Feb. 2, 2012. She says, “Obama already made [sic] a new policy that No U.S. serviceman can speak at any faith-based public events anymore.”
A quick check of various fact-checking websites reveals that this is started as a false rumor regarding the provisions of a bill that passed the U.S. House of Representatives and was eventually signed into law. So the statement is wrong on two counts: (1) Obama did not make the policy; it originated in the House (he did sign it into law); and (2) the law in question says no such thing (again: check snopes.com or factcheck.org or any other fact-checking website).
As far as I’ve been able to discover, President Obama strongly supports free speech.
Jim Eisenbraun Warsaw, via e-mail
Here's the article on snopes.com debunking Witham's statement: http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/faithbased.asp - Web ed
