In my daily news review online and on the air I saw a story
that absolutely incensed me! Anyone who can still hold onto the belief that the
right is really standing-up for the little guy read on.
Mr. Romney:
If you are serious about being concerned about the small
businesses of America, I do believe you owe it to one of them that you have
injured some consideration. You may not have thought that your campaign's
attempt to use a small business as a backdrop would have the unintended
consequence of threats of violence and boycott, but you certainly should have.
How could you not have known that by allowing the news a local restaurant didn’t
want to be a backdrop for your campaign could have had real consequences?
Have you not been watching the news? Did you not know that nearly
half the country would never consider voting for you (what was that figure,
47%? I'd have to look it up…) while nearly half the country would never
consider voting for your opponent? Can you not see how vitriolic the rhetoric
from BOTH sides has gotten? Are you living on another planet?
You may not have personally released the fact that Rosa
Linda's restaurant didn't want you interrupting their lunchtime service,
but surely you have heard the news that Oscar Aguirre and his family have suffered death threats.
Surely you have heard that their restaurant has been hit by a threatened boycott.
Surely you must be able to see the causal relationship between the fact that
the news that your campaign approached and was refused by a local small
business and this mess. Surely! Aren't you the "Pro-Small Business"
candidate!?
If you don't owe this man
compassion because your campaign has caused this mess, do you not owe it to him
as a fellow Mormon? Your campaign certainly seems to have assumed he would have
been amenable to closing his business for your benefit because he shares a
faith with you… You seem to put great value on your faith, but if you could
allow this to happen to a member of your own church, I shudder to think what
you will allow to happen to those of us who don't have any connection to you
other than holding a passport from the same country.
Was your performance on Wednesday,
just that – a performance? Do you really care so little for other people that
you can allow this to happen without at least telling your supporters to stop?
They are after all, attacking this small business for no other reason than that
they happened to turn down your request to allow them to be used to further
your political ambitions! The are attacking this family on your behalf –
misguided as I hope that they are; they are doing this FOR YOU!
I sit here listening to the incessant
ads that you and your supporters are running here in Colorado. You repeatedly
claim that you "…care about poor and middle class families." You keep
claiming that you want to be the president for "100%" of America. Is
it just that the business your followers are threatening is too small a
percentage to be counted part of that 100%?
Wherever you are today, Mr. Romney,
I hope that you will do what is right – speak to your supporters – tell them
that what they are doing to Rosa Linda's and its owners is in opposition to
what you claim to stand for!
2 comments:
In my opinion both Mr. Romney and Mr. Obama are polished professionals. In both cases any statements they make are not spoken from the heart but are carefully worded to give them the most mileage possible in their present professional endeavor. They want to run the country and a lot of people in the country are poor so they will sometimes say that they want to help the poor people.
I think that the percentage of people who normally would vote and who would refuse to vote for either of these two candidates is probably much higher than your figure of 47 percent. I would guess that at least 60 percent would refuse to vote for either candidate. I think for this reason the independent vote will be higher than usual and the number of people who decide not to vote due to the fact that they don't like the candidates will be higher than usual.
Anonymous Reader
Dear Anonymous Reader,
As always, thanks for reading and commenting on my blog. I agree. There would appear to be a general disconnect between those in power. The late, great, Douglas Adams (in The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe put it well when he was discussing a character, Zaphod Beeblebrox, or more accurately, discussing his job - The President of the Universe:
To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it.
To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.
To summarize the summary of the summary: people are a problem.
Again, Anonymous Reader, your observations are always welcome and appreciated.
Don Bergquist
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