My LTTE in response to a hateful right-winger's LTTE

[SharonAnn]

I'm responding to a letter that the local newspaper published two months ago. It was horrible and it's been bothering me all this time. Trust me, you won't get the tone of the original letter from my response. The original was hateful, just hateful. So, I finally decided to answer it.

Dear Editor:

While preparing for Christmas, I‘ve been thinking about the joy, the love, and the generosity that permeates this season while we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. And for some reason, the letter Mr. Shaver wrote to the newspaper back in October came to mind and I felt that I finally needed to respond to it.

In that letter Mr. Shaver stated emphatically that “liberals are the enemy”, that “they should be everybody’s enemy”, and that they are out to “destroy America as we know it.” The judgmentalism in that letter, its vituperative tone, and its false statements were shocking. I have many liberal friends and they are not at all like his description. And I have many conservative friends and they are not at all like Mr. Shaver. The political concepts of liberal and conservative were not well described in his letter and I’d like to present another viewpoint.

The United States of America became a country when a group of its citizens got together and fought a revolution against the conservatives. Yes, those who supported King George III were the political conservatives and the revolutionaries were the political liberals.

In the holiday favorite “It’s a Wonderful Life” we celebrate the happy ending when George Bailey wins out over the conservative Mr. Potter. Yes, George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart) was the liberal capitalist and Mr. Potter was the conservative capitalist.

In our Christian religion we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ whose message transcended that of the conservative Romans and the conservative Jews. Yes, Jesus Christ is the greatest liberal of all! His message of love, acceptance, compassion, caring for others, and giving up wealth and position to follow Him is one that we celebrate at this time of year and hopefully strive to achieve all during the year.

On a personal level, Mr. Shaver and his family have benefited from jobs with good health and retirement benefits which were fought for by liberals. He and his family have benefited from public schools, public universities, and public graduate schools and all of these were created by liberals and are largely paid for by the taxpayer. Perhaps he’s not really a conservative.

No, I cannot accept that “liberals are the enemy”, nor do I believe that conservatives are the enemy. But I do think that those who publish diatribes full of falsehoods are not friends of our democracy and we should not listen to them.

[Maat]

1. That's a great letter.

Well said!

[Kathy in Cambridge]

2. Excellent letter, SharonAnn!

:toast:

[genieroze]

3. I bet you were to kind. eom