Letter: Respect Is a Two-Way Street

I agree with John Hook’s StateCollege.com opinion piece (‘Differing Opinions Don’t Call for Shaming,’ Nov. 17, 2020) in the sense that we should not ridicule those who hold different opinions from our own. But it is bad faith for him to characterize this ridicule as only going in one direction, from left to right.

On the national level, some standout moments of it going in the other direction are claims that voters on the left will ‘transform their nation into an unlivable hellhole’ (Sean Hannity), that ‘the only good Democrat is a dead Democrat,’ (the president), and that ‘the leaders of today’s Democratic Party…despise this country’ (Tucker Carlson). On a more local level, there were more than a few flags this year that expressed excitement for the sequel to Trump-Pence to ‘make liberals cry again,’ as well as other Trump-Pence flags proudly offering the ‘Christian’ sentiment ‘F— Your Feelings.’ Also, most of the Biden-Harris signs I know of were either stolen or defaced at some point over the last few months. And, more than once while standing in a neighbors yard in front of one, I was heckled from a passing car or truck.

I don’t doubt Mr. Hook’s sincerity about about his convictions on issues like abortion, the stock market and fracking. But voters for Biden-Harris were just as sincerely concerned about their land (or lack thereof), their incomes (from wages as much as stocks) and the well-being of their families and friends (in all forms of health care and dignified employment). And they also hold these concerns regardless of whether they were being demonized by media personalities or wished dead by their president.

The business of living and working together is not a national farce, but a two-way street we live on every day. The more we learn more about each other’s actual lives and work together to improve them, avoiding the high drama of political entertainment, the better.

Kevin Sims