Letter to the Editor

To the Editor:

On Oct. 20, you published an article on J.D. Vance, senatorial candidate, in which he calls having police officers attend school board meetings a move to prosecute parents for speaking up.

Not true. Public servants have experienced more than rowdy protesters. The Michigan governor was threatened with death by armed protesters. Our national Capitol was breached and over 100 policemen were attacked by protesters, some of them armed. The legislators were threatened when they were witnessing the certification of a fair election. Pence’s life was threatened and Pelosi’s office was ransacked. People were terrified and several were killed.

These protesters were fueled by the Big Lie that Trump had won. All boards of election nationwide had already certified the election as fair. Many courts, including the Supremes, found no legitimate basis for Trump’s protests and threw all his would-be suits out. Trump and the protesters wanted to bully Pence into refusing to certify the election, an act of subversion, an act of domestic terrorism, supported by assorted officials. People who stood up for the truth were villainized.

The federal government is there not to silence protesters, but to protect people from violent people who endanger others, the opposite of Vance’s claim.

J.D. claims the top issue facing Ohio is immigration at the southern border. Again, he relies on false claims about gangs and drugs. Drugs come in through ports of entry: airports and docks, not on immigrants seeking asylum. One woman at a school board meeting complained immigrants were refusing to get shots and wear masks, thus threatening her. This same woman was protesting both masks and vaccinations, using arguments scraped off the walls at FOX and other right-wing sites.

This combination of lies and bullying threatens democracy. Echoing them might guarantee candidates without principles election in communities where facts are not valued. It does not strengthen what’s good about America. We all know that. Don’t rely on cyber disinformation for facts.

Jill Grubb, Gambier