Letters: GOP not the party of freedom; Who were the PA House members who booed officers?

GOP not the party of freedom

It’s time to face the truth: Republicans claim to champion freedom and limited government, yet their actions betray those values.

In Florida, a state reeling from the devastating impacts of climate change, the mere mention of climate change has been stricken from state laws. Republican governor Ron DeSantis claims Florida’s schools are bastions of free speech, but his policies belie his words. Florida trails only Texas for the most banned books in the country.

Florida’s 11th Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled that the ironically named Individual Freedom Act — known as the “Stop WOKE” Act — violates the First Amendment!

Dozens of Republican-led states have introduced or passed legislation restricting what topics can be taught in schools. From slavery and the Holocaust to politics and sexual orientation, teaching has become a minefield for educators striving to accurately teach such things as American history and the realities of race and racism without running amok of these new laws.

Republicans are tightening the noose on reproductive rights — chipping away at our freedom to choose if, when, how, and with whom to start a family.

Republicans decry government overreach — as they engage in a grand slight-of-hand, conspiring as they speak to bar access to contraceptives, criminalize homosexuality, and outlaw same sex marriage. They’re even going after our most fundamental right of all — the right to vote, passing laws that make voting more difficult.

But the jig is up. We see the hypocrisy, the gaslighting. Republicans are not the party of freedom. Vote them out.

Who were the PA House members who booed officers?

What are the names of the Pennsylvania House representatives who, this month, booed, jeered and walked out on U.S. Capitol police officers, who were assaulted while defending the U.S. Capitol, its staff and U.S. legislators inside.

At least one PA representative even shouted “traitors” at those officers. Who are those PA representatives?

And where do those representatives claim to stand on supporting the “Thin Blue Line?”

Difference between democracy and tyranny

Former president and convicted felon Donald Trump said in an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity that if elected to the presidency he “wouldn’t abuse power or seek retribution ... other than day one.” What does he mean? A king for a day, a 24-hour god? Trump has glorified dictators like Putin, Hitler, Kim, Orban, who demand loyalty and power over everything. They are vindictive, spiteful and malicious. Their goals are to create mayhem and destruction, install fear, reshape or destroy the world to further their own power.

How could we prepare for that one day? Would he change his mind?

The difference between democracy and tyranny is easy to grasp with a few examples.

If you aren’t familiar with the news, how about a different reference? Do you know Sauron, Kefka Palazzo, Lionel Stark Weather, Skeletor, Flowery, Shao Kahn, Richard III, Tyler Durden, Maynard Spencer, Cobra Commander, Big Brother, Simon Legree, Mr. Hyde, Aunt Lydia, and even The Sea Witch. Complete power seekers — from history, literature, films and gaming.

These are examples of what a Trump presidency most assuredly would be.

Would we trade our democracy for even one day?

The seven deadly sins

If you live, like me, in a household reluctant to besmirch our fellow humans ad hominem, you might resort to appraising a miscreant’s behavior objectively. Accordingly, now that a certain former president has been convicted of 34 paperwork felonies and must meet with his parole officer, I’ve been evaluating his overall comportment using the seven deadly sins.

The great Canadian novelist Robertson Davies gathered the seven deadly sins into an acronym, VELAWIG. See now if you can join with me and judge the former president guilty of all seven: Vanity, Envy, Lust, Avarice, Wrath, Indolence, and Gluttonly.

In addition, we once considered another behavior a universally acknowledged sin, perhaps our very last one. This sin the former president indulges in flagrantly, publicly and often, so much that we have lost all sensitivity to it: Hypocrisy.

Thoughtfulness on display

I had a garage sale this weekend, and at the end of it, I put some free items curbside, including three Wiffle balls in an upside down flying disc that kept the balls from rolling off the bench.

Over the next four hours, three kids stopped by. Each took one Wiffle ball, leaving the rest, and leaving the flying disc, until the last child took it with his Wiffle ball.

Mundane? Hardly. Not to me anyway. As so many of us over the age of <insert any number here> complain about “Those danged kids!” I’m delighted to have witnessed polite consideration for others at a basic level right in my front yard.

Cheers to those kids! Cheers to their parents! I’m glad to live in a community where being thoughtful of others is not an afterthought.