I have to give Walter Eno credit for his most recent letter to the editor (“Perhaps Nemitz will recommend Hickox for ‘Ebola czar,’ “ Nov. 25). Even among the “the only good news is bad news” crowd, he is a standout.

Mr. Eno would no doubt jump to the defense of guns and gun owners at the hint of a gun control law, yet he seems eager to remove the freedoms of Americans who have committed no crime and in most cases aren’t even sick, because they committed the unforgivable offense of altruism and selflessness.

Mr. Eno’s complaint about the president putting quarantine restrictions on U.S. military members is also puzzling.

When someone voluntarily signs up for duty in the U.S. military, that makes that person a federal employee. That means they can be told, not asked, to serve for years at a time in remote posts or dangerous waters. They can be told to defuse roadside bombs or to charge enemy machine gun emplacements.

In comparison, are three weeks in quarantine really all that terrible? Obviously, a civilian isn’t subject to those kind of orders.

Mr. Eno’s other main question, regarding the whereabouts of President Obama’s “Ebola czar,” Ron Klain, is even easier to answer. Mr. Klain is somewhere doing his job, which is not, contrary to popular belief, making the rounds of the cable TV circuit soothing the irrational fears of uninformed citizens.

It’s also worth noting that as of this writing, no American even has Ebola, and only one American has died from it. For some perspective, 25 Mainers have died so far this year just in house fires.

It is easy to spread fear and cynicism about Ebola. Spreading knowledge and compassion is much more difficult. It’s painfully obvious that for some those concepts are as foreign as West Africa itself.

Jeremy Smith

Old Orchard Beach