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NOTE: The letter below was published in Blue Stone Press, September 15, 2006, page 15. Apparently embarassed by the viciousness of their former fellow reporter, the editors chose to "edit" the text. The cuts were restored below, some in bold letters. |
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Republicans are people too!
To the Editor:
In her letter published in Blue Stone Press (August 18), Kathy Kuthy talks about involvement and makes an appeals to Rochesterites to stop personal attacks: "we cannot afford to sink into this morass of attacking fellow community members because they have a different opinion."
Is this Ms. Kuthy's new found philosophy? Was it all right to attack people last year, right before the election? I clearly remember that day in October 2005 when she wrote about a Republican who expressed a different opinion at a Town Board meeting: "...the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back, at least for me, was to see a woman who is currently on the Maricopa County, Arizona Most Wanted List attempt to lambast our Town Supervisor over what is right and wrong and The Constitution of the United States."
After reading what she chose to write, I started to cry. After 25 years in America I understood that some people are intent on frightening neighbors who dare to speak their minds. In this case, by digging dirt on Google, and using half-truths (the person made the "most wanted" list for missing alimony payments — Please see the NOTE below.).
Did anybody care how that letter hurt the mother of four wonderful children? Was that personal attack acceptable Democratic behavior before election?
Too often we notice double standards in the way Republicans and Democrats are treated and that is very sad.
If Republicans send letters to the editor over the 500-word limit, they are asked to bring it down to 400 words. If Democrats send 700-word letters, they are indulged.
When Democrats go to town meetings, they are involved, participate and offer their input. If Republicans go to the same meetings, they "come out in full force to discredit the excellent job that our Town Board is doing" (from a mid-June web page on RochesterDemocrats.org).
Most unfairly, Republicans are smeared as "members of the local hate group known as the Republican Club" — as councilman Francis Gray offered recently. The sustained effort to attach stigma to being a Republican smacks of dictatorship.
As political commentator Fred Barnes writes about mainstream media: "conservatives are often labeled in a way to suggest they are mean and hateful. Liberals criticize, but conservatives hate."
Republicans are people too! We all have our own reasons for being members of this political party... Living 30 years under a totalitarian regime and seeing how close some Democratic ideas are to Communism, I chose the Republican Party.
Ms. Kuthy wrote as a private citizen. I write as the daughter of a political prisoner in Communist Romania; as an immigrant granted political asylum in this country; as an American proud to be a Republican.
Manuela Mihailescu — Kerhonkson
manuela@oldbrickhouse.com
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NOTE: The person attacked by Kathy Kuthy sent in this clarification:
She was a homemaker without an income, so she could never owe alimony. Ex-husband was trying to fraudulently extort money. Even with the evidence, the court ruled in his favor. He had an attorney. She did not. For standing up to fraudulent extortion, she was put on the most wanted list in Arizona. It is a civil matter.
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