The personal attack against Cynthia Munley published in the Salem Times Register’s July 16, 2026, edition by Robert Benne (retired Roanoke College religion professor) was astounding in its tone, verifiably false assertions, unsupportable claims and unscholarly level of writing.
After reading Munley’s many studiously researched letters, Benne seemed incapable of distinguishing a clear difference between America and the American Empire that anti-war activist Munley criticizes due to America’s empire increasingly stirring up unnecessary wars in Europe and in the Middle East. Benne attacks Munley’s informative letters and even her patriotism as she sounds the alarm of America losing its independence to Israeli control over America’s military and government at a time that coincides with America celebrating its 250th birthday of declaring its independence on July 4, 2026. Benne stated that in Munley’s post-July 4 letter published on July 9, she expressed “loathing of the USA.” Not so.
I can vouch for Cynthia’s July 4, 2026 activities. She is a member of the Fort Lewis Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). On July 4 morning, Cynthia attended the local DAR celebration with her DAR sisters and friends at the Salem Civic Center (historically, the Richfield home of Salem’s original patriot, General Andrew Lewis). She photographed the event.
One of the photos of the Andrew Lewis statue included Garrett Channell (Executive Director of the Salem History Museum) in the foreground garbed in General Andrew Lewis attire. The photo appeared on the Salem Times Register July 9 front page. She also photographed Carey Harveycutter ringing the historic bell installed in 1883 to summon firefighters.
Cynthia ensured her DAR sisters were activated to send an article of this event to this newspaper. She then attended Garrett Channell’s talk where the large group was invited for refreshments provided by the Salem Civic Center while enjoying Channell’s informative talk about the life and revolutionary activities of General Andrew Lewis.
Benne’s attack is the only published challenge to Munley’s thirteen 2026 LTE’s on various topics addressing national and international politics as a counter-balance to 6th District Congressman Ben Cline. She shares what the mainstream press omits from recurring press narratives and the analysis of experts who have proven correct in their predictions. She correctly predicted that President Trump would betray his own Memorandum of Understanding with Iran. In her post-July 4 letter, she warned that as our nation celebrates its 250th birthday of America’s independence, that America’s very own Congressman Cline and President are leading and voting to further submit to fighting wars for Israel—as a provision of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) merging Israel’s and America’s militaries. This provision was already passed by the House and now faces a US Senate vote. Such an action is unaligned with the American people’s ingrained sense of justice and belief in rule-of-law values.
It is Benne who misleads Salem citizens in claiming that Israel is a democracy and “hardly committing genocide”! Robert Benne is disingenuous.
-Nora Smith
Salem
