Letters to the editor: A whole different GOP; misogyny must be addressed
An extraordinary transformation
The current tragedy of the Republican Party is generating enough bitterness to qualify. Its founders not only saved the Union by drowning slavocracy in the blood of farmers and immigrants but gave it a second founding in constitutional amendments that sealed its triumph over the slavocracy.
In power, it tied the union together by rail, telegraph and waterways and by a national banking system sustained in part by using fiat “treasury money.” It invested common lands in higher education and expanded small proprietorship as well railroad corporations. For years, its legislators resolutely fought to control Confederate “war flags” used by counterrevolutionary terrorists. These were the glory days of the party, its historic roots.
The passage of time has marked an extraordinary transformation. Where today is there a bard who can take the bitterness out of tragedy of this party falling under control of a “federalist” cabal of confederate ideologists and now under the control of a leader as mad as Shakespeare’s worst? His mob added insult to injury by carrying the insurrectionist Confederate “battle flag” into the Capitol. Now the party awaits approbation for its “demonstration” in the courts the party has constructed on “federalist” principles, principles that dominated the old slavocracy. Nixon’s southern strategy may have worked to keep the party in power, but has it not been swallowed by its new partner’s “lost cause.”
Is this a prelude to national greatness or another bloody epic?
Allen Dirrim, Oxnard
Misogyny is a health hazard
To the honorable Santa Paula City Council members:
As Unitarian Universalist women of faith affirming the worth and dignity of every human being, we write with deep concern about patterns of misogynist behavior seen by men in positions of power in Ventura County education, government, and law enforcement who have targeted Latinx women specifically for sexual harassment. We commend Santa Paula Latino Town Hall for researching, informing us all of the harm and trauma of sexual harassment, and calling out such behavior, particularly that of the Santa Paula Police Chief.
We stand in support of all women so targeted. An inappropriate advance toward any woman is an inappropriate advance toward us all. We urge a timely expeditious report of the investigations in process. Results are in everyone’s best interest.
A male colleague writes: “This is an epidemic. Like the gun epidemic, our hope must be for a spiritual revolution. It’s a matter of the heart. All people must hold all other human beings as God created whose very lives are precious. This nation has got to get that right, or we will not get away from facing gun violence and violence against woman on a daily basis.”
It is time to declare misogyny a health hazard as the county has declared racism.
Rev. Dr. Betty Stapleford, Thousand Oaks, and Rev. Dr. Audrey W. Vincent, Santa Paula
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Letters: A whole different GOP; misogyny must be addressed
