Letters to the editor for Monday, July 2, 2018

Right-wing moral credibility

I’ve been a political liberal and a progressive Christian since the 1970s. My congregation, Wesley United Methodist Church in Fresno, has been proudly advocating full equality for all LGBTQIA persons since 1984.

Several years ago I went in search of a list of the specific family values touted by the so-called “values voters,” figuring that I would agree with many, if not most, of them. I found no such list; I was only able to discover things these conservative folks detest, all of them sexual: abortion, pornography, and what they term “the gay agenda.” The only positive formulation I could decipher was that “family values” means that they value families.

Now with the majority of Republicans favoring current governmental policy which separates some immigrant children from their parents (Bee, June 19), we see that even this is not true. It’s darkly comical that many “values voters” have more forgiveness in their hearts for an unrepentant Donald J. Trump in his sexual escapades than for families committing a misdemeanor in their attempt to escape persecution and/or poverty. I’m sorry, right wing, but you’ve lost all moral credibility.

Seems politicians dislike children

Ken Burns’ PBS series “Vietnam” reminded me of something. Early in the 1969 spring semester at Fresno State I dropped into poet Philip Levine’s office on campus. I did not ask about his poetry courses.

I sat down in a chair next to his and asked, “Why are we in Vietnam?”

Without blinking, he said, “Because those in charge do not like children.”

While his answer was not the political statement I expected, I understood immediately because the compassion I had learned from my mother had been reinforced by my church. This was before the June 8, 1972 photograph of 9-year-old Kim Phúc running down the road with her clothes burned off by U.S. napalm. This was before I learned that alleged Christians supported war politicians because they “have the answers.” Their God politicians could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and not “lose any voters.”

If I still believed in hell, I would know that immature politicians are taking us to hell with them.

When an infant’s mother disappears, the infant experiences the terror of irreversible emotional damage. Power-mad politicians do not like children.

Big stink at the border

Who pays for the DNA testing of all the children we seize at the border? U.S taxpayers? Not likely. I know if I’m a pimp in some Mexican border town, I’m sending my girls over to claim my next generation of workers. My girls ain’t getting any younger, you know. How many are to young to speak? How will they ask who’s mama? But I share no culpability. I renounced my Republican membership about a year ago. So, moving forward, anybody who stands with Trump is culpable with kidnapping and maybe worse. The Trump stink will linger long after this lying, vulgar person has left Washington, but I fear the Republican party may not make it. But my sole remains intact.

What will come of GOP, USA?

As a lifelong member of our Grand Old Party, I am wondering what’s next for our beloved nation? Why has longtime coveted dignified political party interaction become so abusive? Why is such a basic moral tenet as the family unit attracting national debate and rancor? What is happening to our historical international friendships among democratic societies? Is it because we have installed as our president an individual who considers himself our authoritarian, rather than democratic, leader? Is it because he has made our Congress basically ineffectual? Is it because his lack of social graces, common courtesy and a respectful vocabulary is bringing disrespect not only upon himself but upon our United States of America? What’s next?