Our friend and benefactor, Steve Gallop has penned an open
letter to his senator, Pat Toomey. It is
unlikely his local paper will print it, so we made some space for it here.
Ed Venture, Editor
Dear Senator Toomey,
You said on Fox News recently that assault weapons were “too
popular” to regulate. Shame on you,
sir. The first order of business for the
new president and the whole Republican Party was to pass a law making it easier
for mentally unstable individuals to purchase firearms – including assault weapons. Thanks to your party’s leader, the current President
of the United States, racism and hatred and violence are also very popular
today. Lest you attempt to brush this
off as hyperbole, let me offer some concrete examples.
Mr. Trump launched his presidential campaign by calling
Mexicans “rapists and criminals” and yet managed to claim the Republican nomination
for president. He commonly offered up violent
language during his campaign. In response
to a non-violent protester at one of his rallies, candidate Trump “Try not to
hurt him. If you do, I'll defend you in court, don't worry about it.”
Some other choice quotes:
“Part of the problem ... is nobody wants to hurt each other
anymore.”
“Knock the crap out of him.”
“I’d like to punch him in the face.”
“I don’t know if I’ll do the fighting myself or other people
will.”
“If you see someone getting ready to throw a tomato, knock
the crap out of them, would you? Seriously.”
There is plenty more where that came from. And that is just the purely violent rhetoric. And it is all quite popular in certain
circles.
Since taking office, Mr. Trump has escalated his hate speech,
his racism and his divisiveness. In
response to Trump stirring up fear, hatred and resentment toward refugees from
south of the border, asking, “How do you stop these people?” someone at his
rally shouted “Shoot them.” Mr. Trump
shot back, with a smirk on his face, “That’s only in the Panhandle you can get away
with that statement.” Some might call all
of this inciting violence. Especially coming
from the occupant of the Oval Office. Is
all of this popular because he is president, or is he president because all of
this is so popular? Do you, Senator
Toomey, condone these actions because they are popular?
This president has never made even the slightest pretense of
representing all Americans. He cares
only about representing those who idolize him.
Any criticism is taken as a direct threat to his fragile ego.
Once Mr. Trump was able to pull himself away from yet
another weekend of golfing, he begrudgingly, and an almost sociopathic lack of
emotion, read a statement that went against everything he has said and done. The statement blamed the usual suspects
(mental illness, video games, the media) – all of which have been proven not to
be causative factors in mass shootings. Whoever
wrote the speech omitted the glaring exception of Trump’s consistent, vile,
hateful speeches and tweets. This,
despite the fact that some two dozen incidents were perpetrated by people who
clearly believed that Donald Trump inspired and/or supported their actions. After all, he is very popular…in certain
circles.
The fact that something is popular has never been sufficient
reason to make it legal. I hope you will
reconsider your very unpopular position.
Steve Gallop, concerned citizen
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