To the editor:
Mr. Pence,
Donald Trump’s childish, cruel and pathetic rebuttal to the Khan family — in particular to a grieving mother whose son’s life was sacrificed for this country — must truly make you overflow with pride that you can stand beside this man and proclaim his values and worthiness to represent this nation.
Oh, but that’s right — you have also proclaimed that the families of those who lost their lives defending our freedoms should be cherished.
Well, whoop. Dee. Do.
How exactly do you explain or excuse Trump’s behavior to your children? The same way you’ve been excusing it to crowds of people you’ve been trying to convince should follow him? That this is just verbal rhetoric in a heated campaign, that it doesn’t really reflect who Donald Trump is? That once he becomes president we’ll all get to see the real person that Donald is? What his vision is for this country? Honestly?
You would stand there and look into your children’s eyes and tell them that this is a good man who personifies the best of what Americans can be? Should aspire to be? A man with so little adult self-restraint that he would lash out in so-called “self-defense” at a woman who, unlike you, sir, will never again have the joy of being able to look into her child’s eyes.
You have been dismissing his behavior as merely heated words in a heated campaign. Shame on you, sir, shame, because you are selling a lie and you know it. You are a career politician and undoubtedly have seen your fair share of degrading political rhetoric on the campaign trail. And like the rest of adults in this country, you know the difference between campaign mud-slinging and a flat out tyrannical rant by a highly unqualified and basically unstable individual who is completely out of his depth in the campaign he has entered.
This is the man you would have sit in the Oval Office and lead this country?
Donald Trump accused Bernie Sanders of “selling out” when he stood up in front of this nation and vowed to support Hillary Clinton. The only thing Bernie Sanders sold out was his own ego and sense of self-importance. He set aside disappointment because he realized the core of our democracy — our principles of honor and fairness — was better served by uniting with a campaign striving to preserve the best of all this country is and ever has been, rather than sit back and let the pieces fall to a man like Donald Trump; a small, petty little man who happens to have a large sum of money, a big mouth, and even bigger delusions that only he can fix all of our society’s ills.
Interestingly enough, history tells us that Adolf Hitler suffered the same delusion. Small wonder that the neo Nazi and white supremacists in this country are lining up with the same person you are. It may be worth remembering however that there were members of Hitler’s inner circle that thought he could be controlled as well if he came to power.
You stand with a man who has sounded a clarion call of hatred and bigotry to all those eager to follow it.
And to those followers of Donald Trump who don’t care for his particular brand of cynicism and degrading behavior but are willing to overlook them for the sake of so called “party loyalty,” the plain, simple but unavoidable truth is that anyone who supports this man and votes for him is furthering the cause of bigotry and hatefulness. Period. You don’t get the milk without the cow.
Lisa Voiles
Whiteland
