An old adversary got me started in 2021.
***
A few years ago when Arnold Palmer was blistering the golf courses, the media labeled his many devoted followers as “Arnie’s Army.”
In my opinion, the liberal press and electronic news media should come up with the term “Trump’s Troopers” for those supporting the President, because no matter what they throw at President Trump and his devoted followers, the almost 75,000,000 folks that voted for him are not going away anytime soon.
There appears to be plenty of evidence regarding the fraud that went on to cheat the president out of his reelection.
One would have to be both blind and deft to believe otherwise.
I am standing by for the retort I will probably get to this letter but it will fall on deaf ears; a spade is a spade and by any other term it is a spade.
Tony Cavarno
Printed January 16, 2021 in the Siusalw News
***
I submitted the following letter to the Siuslaw News January 17, Editor “Ed” be damned. It was not printed on the 20th or 23, the next two editions of the paper. This is what I had written.
***
Tony Cavarno challenged Siuslaw News readers to response to his January16 Opinion statement that the recent presidential election had been rigged, that Trump had won. I offer these excerpts from a 2018 article written by Christian pastor and author John Pavlovitz. https://johnpavlovitz.com/2018/08/07/you-cant-change-hatred-but-you-can-outvote-it/?fbclid=IwAR1QgD5MNAHrpzrkG_0ewKlZVkJRO7a1ZgTn9phxuZOw57esLfBdcEdPGis)
I think it’s time to stop saying that we need to understand these people. I think we do understand them:
We understand that they have dug in their heels so deeply, they will not be moved by anything—not facts or data or truth or their own eyes.
…
If adults are that fragile in the face of reality, that willing to deny country and humanity simply because they’re offended, that thin-skinned and prone to mutiny—their dispositions aren’t really a burden the rest of us should or could bear.
…
… since these people will not be moved, the rest of us need to move together.
…
We don’t need to convince or coddle or win over hatred, and we don’t need to outdo it either.
We
need to outnumber it.
We
need to outlast it.
We
need to outlove it.
We
need to outvote it.
To this I add: We need to declare always what is true and what is not.
***
Editor Ed printed a version of the letter January 27.
He removed the link to the Pavlovitz article.
He used a semi-colon and a closed quotation mark – neither of which was necessary – and omitted my three dots between certain excerpts that indicated that the excerpts were not consecutive.
He omitted (the phrase is in bold letters) a part of one excerpt that I definitely wanted included: “If adults are that fragile in the face of reality, that willing to deny country and humanity simply because they’re offended, that thin-skinned and prone to mutiny—their dispositions aren’t really a burden the rest of us should or could bear.
Ed cannot help himself. Everything must comport to his sense of propriety. Never mind that the author should be entitled to express exactly what he believes.
***
Several months later Ed resigned his position and left the newspaper. I submitted the following letter to test whether the new Siuslaw News editor would print what Ed would never accept.
***
Strike up the band. Release the balloons. Our greatest president will be reinstated in August!
Thank you, ninjas in Arizona, for exposing how the Socialist lefties and George Soros, Bill Gates, and Anthony Fauci cheated Donald J. Trump out of being reelected!
Our leader warned us about mail-in ballots. The media mob and the socialists in Congress have attacked Trump like no President before him. So unfair. You know it. I know it. He’s a stable genius. He’s got a big brain. He knows more than the generals.
You should thank him for Pfizer, Moderna, and J&J. And Biden, now taking all the credit! Disgraceful!
Fake news wants you to believe that we MAGAs attacked the capitol. It was Antifa dressed to look like us! Yes, some of us were there, We were peaceful. We had really good reasons to protest! If you don’t play by the rules, you don’t have a country!
AOC, that Muslim Omar, Pelosi, Pocahantas, Clinton, Abrams, Shifty Schiff, Sleepy Joe want to ruin it! Every real American state legislator, governor and flag-waving patriot must stop the steal! Forever!
If you believe this garbage, you’ve been suckered by the king of liars and a political party shamelessly dishonest. GOP-controlled state houses and governors have passed legislation that cements autocratic rule. Congressional and Senate Republicans are fine with it. They and their media mouthpieces are traitors to our democracy!
Stop their theft of unfettered, universal suffrage, of receiving always from all media sources truthful information, of our wanting to attempt to enjoy a productive, fulfilling life!
Printed June 23, 2021, in the Siuslaw News
***
The only change to this letter was that two words – “that Muslim” – were removed. One person responded to the letter.
***
This week’s Letters to the Editor made me wonder what a newcomer might conclude about Florence. My discomfort comes from the litany of “Trumpisms” which drip with disdain (“Suckered into Belief,” Harold Titus). Instead of a tone welcoming diversity of thought, these diatribes claim to be facts.
Publish more topics of shared interests and concerns, please.
Bou Kilgore
Printed June 26, 2021 in the Siuslaw News
***
The following letter was a condensation of a 400+ letter I sent to the Florence City Council honoring the request of Mike Allen, FADC member and local climate change activist.
***
Bruce Jarvis’s request July 19 that the City Council adopt a “Stand for Freedom” resolution to make clear that the city of Florence “will not assist our governor or any state agency with the enforcement of any law, mandate or edict that is against the United States Constitution” is the product of a fevered mind. Jarvis referenced “widespread discord and unrest … rampant in our society today” and that “such a resolution will serve to unite our community and increase our sense of personal safety.” The “discord and unrest” so rampant in our country is the result of the madness of current Trumpian Republican Party policy that seeks to cement permanent autocratic, one-party minority rule that is the antithesis of one-person one-vote democratic practice.
Sam Spayd, referencing climate change, declared that “time spent by our city council would be better utilized in dealing with the issues that are right in our face .. [that] present a definite challenge to the time our city council has for dealing with issues which will have a direct impact upon our lives.” The menace of climate change is not “in our face”? Does not “have a direct impact upon our lives”? What can be said about such deniers of fact, of science – these blatant tunnel-visioned proponents of benefit solely for corporations and self – that evades derision?
There are principled Republicans who champion democracy, cherish truth, respect science, value individual sacrifice and social responsibility. Step forward.
Printed July 29, 2021, in the Siuslaw News
***
I offered the Siuslaw News the following letter in August. The editor held the letter for 7 weeks. I finally sent my letter to The World. They printed it without a single alteration. Soon afterward the Siuslaw News editor sent me an email informing me that she had had a large backlog of letters yet to be printed and would print mine in the next edition, October 9.
***
Ultra right conservative viewpoints do not constitute majority thinking in this country. History has demonstrated that such thinking put into practice (anti-mask, anti-vaccination, and denial of climate change being examples) is invariably destructive of the lives and physical and economic health of most Americans. Right now we are 14 months away from becoming a fascist nation ruled by a soulless arty committed entirely to the seizure and maintenance of dictatorial power.
During my lifetime the GOP has always been a White male, Christian, corporation-directed party. Its office holders have been rewarded handsomely for promoting and protecting the interests of their wealthy donors. It can not dare to say to ordinary citizens, “You don’t matter because your well being clashes with what the Koch brothers, Exxon, Chevron, the pharmaceutical industry, and most large corporations demand.” Instead, Republican officials and their media mouthpieces lie, incessantly. The Democratic Party is evil incarnate. They will destroy our beloved country. With their costly economic programs, do you really really want – horrors – Socialism? The debt! The debt! Why, tax cuts for the rich grow the economy, create jobs! You, too, will benefit! (Never mind that your income has remained stagnant for decades. Never mind that so many Americans are destitute, about to be evicted, already homeless.)
Complementing GOP lies is the party’s use of wedge issues. They shape and intensify White Americans’ existing resentments, fears, and prejudices. Dems want abortion on demand. Biden’s gonna get your guns. Illegals are streaming across our borders. Blacks are gonna take your jobs and ransack your neighborhoods. God and our way of life are going to be erased.
Same old, still same old. Now much more! Democracies don’t survive when dishonest politicians count the vote!
Printed October 2, 2021, in The World
October 9, 2021, in the Siuslaw News. The Siuslaw News editor held the letter 7 weeks, informing me politely of a huge back load.
***
An old adversary responded.
***
In response to a letter in the Oct. 9 Siuslaw News entitled “They Say,” I want to ask --- what planet is Mr. Titus living on?
It’s easy for a retired person living in a very comfortable community such as Florence with a secure income to throw out a letter to convey that all is well and beautiful under the current administration, Really?
The influence of this administration is reaching across America to tear everything apart for our survival. When you go outside of our cocoon here, you will have a wake-up call.
Mr. Titus can criticize the conservative Christians, but I have to point out that these are the very people who are working tirelessly to maintain the freedom and values we grew up with as children.
We are not against masks and vaccinations per se, but the mandates of force. The climate change is another issue for control over the way we live. The liberal politicians say one thing and do another.
Our education system is one of the more serious issues at hand. Some things have no business being taught in our schools, directing our youth towards radical ideas. Education should be a guide towards a career, not an indoctrination to cause division.
It’s grievous to see what has happened to this country in these short nine months: gas prices on the rise and soon to be in short supply, empty grocery shelves in larger cities, nurses and doctors walking off their jobs, airlines canceling flights in large numbers and the list goes on. This is just the beginning.
People are afraid and becoming desperate.
In my mind, the delusional democrats need to get a grip on reality.
Donna Dobson
Printed October 23, 2021, in the Siuslaw News
***
I’m happy to report that in the Siuslaw News’s October 3 edition fellow Democratic Club member Karen Mahoney rebuffed Donna Dobson’s GOP talking points – especially this phrase: “The influence of this administration is reaching across America to tear everything apart for our survival” brilliantly.
No comments:
Post a Comment