As described in the text below, he sent out a political flyer that set my teeth on edge. I responded by writing a letter to the editor.
This is the "more important issue" I reference in the title above. The first amendment to our constitution assures us of a free press and the freedom of speech. A letter to the editor takes advantage of both rights.
One of the newspapers to which I submitted the letter declined to publish it, regarding it as political in nature and, by the newspaper's "policy", allowable only as a paid political advertisement. In my view, this paper denied me my right of free speech.
The local paper in the town where I live chose to publish it and, for that, I am grateful, despite the tone of my letter and the overarching ideology of the local paper being in stark contrast.
We must not fear to speak out. There are those who would choose to ignore glaring falsehoods when spoken by those in power. I choose not.
Now my letter:
To the editor:
I opened my mailbox the
other day to find a flyer from Mr. Kitchens' campaign focused on the
sole issue of his support of the second amendment and his "highest
rating" from the NRA.
It takes a little
digging, but I eventually found my way to the NRA's Political Victory
Fund web site where politicians' grades can be found. I looked up Mr.
Kitchens' grade. It was AQ ( defined as a "pro-gun candidate whose
rating is based solely on the candidate's
responses to the NRA-PVF Candidate Questionnaire and who does not have a
voting record on Second Amendment issues"). Well, that makes sense.
Mr. Kitchens hasn't held elective office so he would have no voting
record at all. Elected officials who have voting records can receive
grades of A +, B, and D, depending on the extent to which they have
supported the NRA agenda of gun rights versus gun control.
Candidates
(like Mr. Kitchens) can achieve a grade of A (higher than AQ) if they
are a " solidly pro-gun candidate. A candidate who has supported NRA
positions
on key votes in elective office or a candidate with a demonstrated
record of support on Second Amendment issues."
An
argument can be made, therefore, that Mr. Kitchens does not have the
highest grade (A+) nor does he have the second highest grade (A). Who
else thinks this earns him either a "Pinocchio" award or a "Pants on
Fire" prize?
It gets better. The flyer declares "Wes Kitchens believes you have a God-given
constitutional right to keep and bear arms." I love it when
politicians string these nonsense word salads together.
Constitutional? That's verifiable. I believe we all have a
constitutional right to keep and bear arms. There are times that I wish
we didn't. But God-given? That's harder.
So let me help Mr. Kitchens establish that this is a God-given
right. Maybe it has its roots in Exodus where the Lord God instructs
that "You shall not kill." Or moving forward in the Bible, it's where
Jesus says that "He who lives by the sword will die by the sword."
Isaiah must have had this right in mind when he foresaw Jesus as the
"Prince of Peace". I know it must be in one of those pesky commands
Jesus gives, like "Love your neighbor as yourself. Love your enemies."
And peskiest of all, "Love one another as I have loved you."
I
could not find a campaign web site for Mr. Kitchens. I did find his
Facebook page, but it shed little light on what kind of platform Mr.
Kitchens is promoting. His announcement of his intention to run
contained more of that word salad: "Fiscally conservative". "Christian
and conservative values". "Reduce wasteful spending."
All
those phrases are meant to give warm, fuzzy feelings to the
electorate. They give me heartburn, because they don't say anything
about what qualifies him to run. They don't say anything concrete about
what legislation he envisions putting forth.
Does
"fiscally conservative" mean that you want to keep the state in the
same financial pickle it's been in for years, because you're too
terrified to suggest that we might need more revenue (i.e., taxes) to
repair our infrastructure, to educate our children, to provide better
healthcare for our citizens, to address mental health issues that are an
insult to the phrase "Christian values"?
Mr. Kitchens is running a campaign of smoke and mirrors and some other elements that I'm too polite to mention here.
He will not have my vote. He believes in keeping Alabama on its present track to the bottom.
He
would do better to recall the words of George Bernard Shaw often cited by Robert Kennedy, "Some men see
things as they are, and ask why. I dream of things that never were, and
ask why not." Now those are words to guide a political campaign. We need a
few good dreamers.
