Griffiths has no respect for other opinions

I have been a Capital Gazette reader since the mid-’90s when my wife and I moved to Annapolis. I have appreciated the local news and differing editorial and reader opinions, but of late, some of the opinion columns appear to have been judged by a new lower standard of what is fit to print. To wit, Brian Griffiths. For starters, his grasp of facts is, if not skewed to his own liking, plain fabrication, as with a column about gambling some time ago. In his latest column, “With abortion access bill, Dems are galloping toward Gomorrah,” he goes beyond presenting an opinion to screeching an unbridled rant that cites half a line from a literary classic, “Animal Farm,” for the purpose of a pro-life stance. Really?

I am a lifelong Democrat, if there are those who need to know what “side” I am on, but like many Americans, Left, Right, or in the middle, I have a respect for all life that supersedes any political perspective. Aiming his vitriol at everyone who leans toward a particular political stance ignores the fact that we are all human beings and deserving of respect, not only as people, but also for our individual opinions, which just may differ from the “party line.” He may view himself as a “firebrand of the unborn,” but from what I have read, pushing his own stamp of what is right by whatever means seems to me more important than being an honest and compassionate voice for the rest of us sinners.

Should his invective appear again on your editorial pages, I will discontinue our long relationship.

Steve Hakala, Annapolis