Letters to the Editor

Apology needed

On June 14, a large group of No Kings protesters assembled on the corner of Washington and 2nd Ave, in front of the Blair House. It was a peaceful gathering of concerned citizens who held signs opposing the actions and policies of the current administration. It was an exercise in free speech.

The evening before on social media, someone posted a disgraceful screed of derogatory comments about those who were going to participate in the protest. It was too vile to reprint, but the comments were meant to dehumanize and degrade those who were exercising their 1st Amendment rights.

It was basic name-calling and bullying more commonly heard on a middle school playground than among mature adults. The difference is that middle school students don’t hide behind a cloak of anonymity. Whoever posted this invective was too cowardly to say who they were.

The post was typical extreme-right wing hateful language and was unremarkable and should simply be ignored. However, the post was under the heading of “The Washington County Republican Central Committee.” There were no names attached to the post.

If this post was indeed authorized by the Washington County Republican Party, then they need to come forward, take responsibility and apologize to the citizens of Washington County. The type of language used in that post contributes to an environment of incivility and for some who are unstable, violent action. Republicans must refuse to engage in such rhetoric.

If the Washington County Republicans are not responsible for this post, then they need to publicly condemn it, repudiate it, and call out whoever was responsible for posting hate speech in their name. That person(s) need to be publicly censured.

The people of Washington County are decent, civil, and pragmatic when it comes to politics. We do not need extreme hate speech trying to inflame the anger and passions of those who are gullible enough to listen to it.

The protesters at the No Kings rally were a cross-section of our county. There were elderly people there, veterans who fought for our country, young people who are speaking their mind, people from the faith community expressing their values, and even perhaps a Republican or two who oppose many of the current administration’s policies.

The degrading language used to describe this group speaks way more about the self-loathing of the person(s) who wrote it than it does about those they attacked.

Dan Henderson, Washington