Guilty until proven innocent

Editor, Gettysburg Times,

See if you can spot the difference. Recent letters to the editor or op-ed’s written by DFA members have: urged more people, both sides, to run for local office, or, later, to vote; warned that many people should check whether they’re about to lose Medicaid coverage; provided an overview of social services in Adams County; described the functions of a school librarian; described the pro’s and con’s of Medicare Advantage; and released a position paper on affordable housing. Seven published pieces, no attacks on anyone, just information.

From the right, we have in a single column heard the accusation that “Democrats want to criminalize conservative Christianity”; heard a call for the FBI director to be imprisoned at Guantanamo; heard Dr. Fauci accused of perjury (knowingly lying) about something where the facts aren’t yet agreed on, two years after the testimony (Maresca, Aug 28); heard a rant about why we should not be admitting Ukrainian or Afghan refugees (Guzzardi, August 25); heard the ludicrous open borders charge multiple times and the assertion that Biden is encouraging crime (Guzzardi, August 3); and the absurd lie that inflation has been running at 16.6% since Biden took office (Maresca, August 11). What you publish from the right is really pathetic; your columnists need to up their game.

Speaking of pathetic, today’s editorial cartoons may have hit a new low. The cartoon shows a man standing and saluting the Trump mug shot and when asked weren’t you saying it’s time to move on, answers, “wild horses wouldn’t stop me from voting for him now.”

The message is clear: otherwise, I might prefer someone else but I’m voting for Trump just because he got indicted. That’s breath-taking.

Does your editorial page have that much contempt for the rule of law? Do you really think Trump is above the law? There’s no ambiguity about the Georgia charges. He committed the crimes in plain sight. We all heard the phone call. The accusations about the Fulton County vote counters are acknowledged to be lies. They freely admit they made up phony slates of electors. The witnesses against him are Republicans, bitter end loyalists who were with him even after January 6 until his criminality became too obvious even for them to ignore. This is a chance to belatedly jump ship and rejoin the 75% who believe in democracy, not a reason to vote for this wannabe autocrat.

Leon Reed,
Gettysburg