In support of 2 locals

Editor, Gettysburg Times,

Many pundits claim that for the “average” person, the main election issues in November are high inflation and the economy. These are complicated global issues over which a single president or governing body has little control. There are no easy solutions. It may help to remember that our country has been through these economic cycles many times before and survived.

The real hot button issues on the November ballot are threats to our democracy and a growing list of fundamental rights, from women’s bodily autonomy to whom one may love and marry. These threats have been created largely by a Republican party that has long lost the right to call itself “the party of Lincoln.” It is now dominated by Christian nationalist extremists and cowardly followers who are interested only in maintaining power, not in serving the people, least of all those who are not their “base.”

In Adams County, we have an opportunity to vote out of office Dan Moul, who has become one of the many Trump party “followers” in the General Assembly and has a small list of legislative achievements given his long time in office. I will be voting for Marty Karstetter Qually, who has had several years of experience working in the local government as a county commissioner. Qually has pledged to fight for democracy, reproductive choice, and other hard-fought-for rights. He is not interested in power, but rather, in public service in the state legislature.

In this election, we now have a compelling Democratic write-in candidate (also from our community) for the 13th Congressional District. Her name is Beth Farnham, a former Republican who lost faith in that party and became a member of the Adams County Democratic Committee. She is challenging John Joyce, a pious Christian physician who is an all-out Republican. He votes against most, if not all, Democratic initiatives and he is against a woman’s right to make decisions about her own body and life.

In Farnham’s words, “A vote for me is a vote for the American ideals of individual self-worth, equal rights, liberty, enfranchisement, and majority rule, once promised by our Founding Fathers, improved by marching generations, and manifested in you.” If you believe John Joyce does not represent you, vote for Beth Farnham by darkening the circle next to “write in” under John Joyce’s name, and then writing or printing her name.

Jeanne Duffy,
Gettysburg