Wes Kitchens and more important issues

Wes Kitchens is a young local man who is running for a seat in the state legislature.  

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.

I know it's just primary season, but I encourage your readers to investigate Bill Jones, Democrat running for the same district 27 seat as Mr. Kitchens.  Bill has a platform; it's about a better Alabama.