Cook County News Herald

Silencing Sedition

As I see it


This was written two weeks ago after reading Rae Piepho’s Letter to the Editor. It was hoped that as more facts emerged about this Insurrection, she might have changed her mind – if not this must be said. When I was growing up, the worst thing I could do was tell a lie. I could confess to countless “sins” in my parent’s fundamentalist, evangelical warped view of the Gospel and still find redemption by telling the truth. Grace was available after confession but a bar of soap, or more, was the consequence of lying. I realize that my writings of recent have advocated for less divisiveness and more inclusion as we try to recover our common humanity and shared faith in democracy. However, after reading Rae Piepho’s collection of unfounded rumors, and delusional regurgitations of her demagogue “Fearless Leader”, calling the seditionists who attacked our democracy and attempted a violent coup – patriots, I had to confront the malignancy that instigated this insurrection. Our nation’s capital hasn’t been assaulted in over 200 years by invading enemies, and to enable the deceit, delusion and glorification of their violence is unconscionable. “The only thing necessary for evil to triumph, is for good people to do nothing!” (Edmund Burke) We have spent over five years tolerating incalculable lies from our president, that I fear we’ve grown numb to the insane gaslighting. From questioning Obama’s birth certificate, to denying he had any business dealings in Russia, to the hush money he paid and campaign finance laws he violated paying off a porn star so he could be elected, to the size of his inauguration crowd, to how indebted he is and to whom, to not releasing his tax returns, to denying Russia’s attempts to subvert our democracy and believing Putin over all of our intelligence agencies consensus, to asserting that if he didn’t win in 2016 or 2020 it was because the election was rigged, to describing COVID-19 as a Democratic hoax that will disappear on election day, to saying he won the election by a landslide while attempting to perpetrate election fraud with Georgia’s Secretary of State (“I just need 11,780 votes – come on fellas”); and I’ve barely scratched the surface. Rae suggests that if you only watch NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, or PBS you might not have heard of her FACTS (writing in capital letters doesn’t make it true) about the faulty voting machines, and other nonsense she perpetuated. The fact that there were three hand recounts verifying the accuracy of those machines in Georgia, or that every Governor and Secretary of State (many of whom were Republican Trump voters) verified that the election results were accurate and non-fraudulent, or that Trump’s own election cyber-security expert and even Mitch McConnell concurred this was the safest, fairest, nonfraudulent election ever, is ignored with QAnon level of discernment. The other stories perpetuated by Trump and his attorneys (who called for firing squads and “Trial by Combat”) were refuted in the last 60 Minutes episode – but I guess you won’t see that if you only watch Newsmax or Fox’s sycophants. As for Rae’s denial of the actual facts of the Mueller Report, clearly, she has not read the report and the well-documented evidence of obstruction of justice – you can borrow my copy if your mind isn’t closed. For Rae to keep stoking those lies, is exactly what fed this insurrection and threatens our future with further upcoming acts of domestic terrorism. Her endorsement of Pete Stauber’s attempt to overturn Texas and other states election results (despite being laughed out of court) is anything but patriotic. It is the malignancy that is destroying our citizens’ faith in democracy. Our citizens’ faith in democracy is what needs restoration by our leaders. Having survived religious zealotry and argued scriptures with fundamentalists (by the way – neither “fun” nor very “mental”) I’ve learned of the dangers of magical thinking to fill a closed mind. I get that having been conned by a malignantly narcissist, misogynistic, sexual predator who wants to tear down the fabric of our society (free press, Justice Department, free and fair elections, etc.) is embarrassing to admit to. While I’m sure I disagree with Rae’s theology, I can respect her love for Christ – a love I share. However, to deny Christ’s essential message of non-violence, even when confronted by angry mobs like those on the capital and not defend himself even through crucifixion, seems like the same selective interpretation that is true of religious zealots in any religion.

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