letter to the editor

Disturbed by political mailings

Tue, 11/15/2016 - 3:30pm

Dear Editor:

I have been mulling over the election and have to say I am seriously disturbed by the ugliness this campaign on national and local levels generated.

Enough has been said about the national level to make us all want to go into our closets and hide.

On the local (very local) level, it was disorienting to observe the snarky misrepresentations that took place in the mailings by the Republican party. Instead of talking about the candidate’s accomplishments and policy, they attacked the opposing candidate. But that wasn't all that upset me. It is the "one of us" comments that I found most offending and quite frankly insulting. Really, does "one of us" qualify a person to hold office or do their ideas about policy? Any representative's, "one of us" or "the other" job is to represent all the people. Does living in Westport Island, South Bristol or Edgecomb allow one to be considered "one of us?" I don't think so, since a local friend said she wasn't local because she was born off peninsula.

Many of us have chosen to live here and the reasons are many. To consider those of us who live here by choice not by birth, who contribute to this community in our volunteer hours, our financial support of organizations and local businesses, by labeling us as not "one of us" is not only disrespectful, but provincial in thinking. We need to embrace people with respect wherever they are from and rejoice in the talents and love they bring to the place they have chosen as home.

Richard Blanco, our Inauguration poet of Cuban birth, referred to a statement his mother told him and I am paraphrasing here. "It doesn't matter where you were born, what matters is where you chose to die, that is your country."

So is this Boothbay my country, my home. Am I "one of us?"

Bonnie Ginger

Boothbay