Personal attacks won’t help solve division

RegardingGreg Rushford’s Letter from Rappahannock (“Rural Republicans….”, Rappahannock News, July 21, 2022): I could not decide what I wanted to respond to, and then I realized I had a response in anecdotal examples of my various reactions.

A. How come Rushford gets a whole page, while I have to squeeze into 300 words?

1. Who has harmed America and Americans more: Biden or Putin? Several op-ed writers have offered long lists of comparisons; I could refer you to some.

2. “… Putin admirers like Trump and Tucker Carlson….” No: “admire” is not the same as “respect”; both those individuals are on record denouncing

Putin’s aggression.

3. “Help Ukraine” is not equivalent to “Send Ukraine $40B++ of modern arms (which we have to borrow, since someone left $80B-worth for the Taliban) with no accountability after it is delivered in Poland.”

4. What is the common denominator among David Konick, Terry Dixon, Demaris Miller, and Hung Cao, who all decline to speak with you? Maybe you should check your mouthwash or your attitude in conversation?

5. Your overall thesis, between trite partisan jabs at non-Democrat-Party persons, is that we no longer have “civil discourse” to work through our differences. I agree. Which side immediately toggles to ad hominem attacks, calling their opposition “racist” and “homophobe” (or “Putin lovers”, as you did) every time we start arguing? Which side encourages BLM/Antifa/“Ruth Sent Us” to break our laws and injure American citizens and officials? Which side jails 69-year-old grandmothers with cancer for a year without trial and then never incarcerates Colbert’s crew for exactly the same offense (“unauthorized parading through the Capitol”)?

I am about to exceed my word limit, so I have to quit there. Think about it, though.

Robert Klaus Amissville