Dear Editor:
I read with dismay the op-ed you ran in your newspaper last week (Person vs. Party or Politics 101). I worked in Van Horn, Sierra Blanca and Alpine a few years ago, and I enjoy keeping up with your town.
If you will allow me, please let me rebut some fallacies in Ms. Gilmore’s arguments. First, I don’t affiliate myself with either the Republican or the Democratic Party. I don’t think either party does an adequate job of representing us. As an independent thinker, I tend to agree with some of the principles of both parties.
Sanctity of Life, as Ms. Gilmore portrays it – One of the reasons I don’t belong to the Republican Party is because I view the party as hypocritical. Republicans love to talk about “liberty†and “freedom†and “let’s keep government away from our lives.†Why, then, do Republicans insist on injecting government into what is perhaps the most private decision a woman can make?
I am not a proponent of abortion, but I am not the one who gets to make these judgments. As a Christian, I believe that only God is the final arbitrator, and only He can impose judgment. By the same token, Republicans are in favor of capital punishment. How is that logical? It’s not logical or rational because it has been proven again and again that the death penalty does not deter crime, which tends to be the principle argument for those who capital punishment.
Ms. Gilmore is also wrong in her characterization of what she calls “abortion on demand.†This is an exaggeration and a lie. I’m 49 years old and in my lifetime, I have never known one woman who was “pro-abortion.†Ms. Gilmore sensationalizes the abortion issue, and in so doing, demonizes women who for whatever reason, may choose to have an abortion. Again, I am not in favor of abortion, but in 2014, it is outrageous that we are still discussing this topic. Government has no place in the bedroom or in a woman’s womb.
As for “American Sovereignty,†I think Ms. Gilmore has been watching Fox News too long. It is absurd, and quite frankly, juvenile, to think that America has lost its sovereignty. When I hear phrases like, “let’s take our country back†I ask, “take our country back from whom or from where?†I am not an Obama supporter and I did not vote for him, but I find it offensive that Republicans blame everything on this president.
The Republican Party is a stale party with no new ideas. It’s a party that lives in the Dark Ages, and the only thing Republicans offer is tax cuts for the rich, delving into the private matters of women, privatizing everything they can get their hands on and proponents of zero government regulations.
The Democratic Party is a party that really doesn’t stand for much either. Some Democrats are really Republicans, but they continue to carry the Democrat Party label.
Living in Wichita Falls, I hear all kinds of crazy things from Republicans and those who support the radical Tea Party. It is amusing to hear that President Obama will refuse to leave office at the end of his term so that he can gather up all our guns and become a dictator. Really? Or that “the government†plotted to create the recent severe snow storm in Atlanta and the other southern states a few weeks ago.
I wish Ms. Gilmore would pay attention to the facts and not to sound bites from Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and all the other “conservatives.†America is exceptional, as she put it. And America will continue to remain exceptional in many arenas. We must do a better job of educating our children, for example, or else we will fall so far behind that we will never catch up. We will never give the United Nations the authority to overstep and to make laws for the U.S. That’s nothing more than hyperbole.
In closing, I don’t begrudge Ms. Gilmore for having her opinion; however, facts don’t lie. We have to separate one from the other.
Rebecca Sternadelle
Wichita Falls, Texas
