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I delayed responding to a recent editorial in the Winona Daily News (“The candidate who is right on the issues is ...”) until after the election because my concern was not so much with who the Daily News endorsed or who won this election as with one sentence that seems to imply an attitude that is particularly problematic.
According to the writer of this article, “Right now in this politically charged environment, we need to talk about what issues really matter, not what issues really raise our blood pressure.”
I call this particularly problematic because of the unreasonable distinction between what really matters and what we (voters) care about. This sentence suggests that the voters of 28B care about, and care deeply about, issues that do not really matter.
Certainly, 150 years ago, the issue of slavery raised some blood pressure on both sides. Was this an issue that did not really matter?
Without a doubt, 90 years ago, the issue of extending the right to vote to women raised some blood pressure on both sides. Was this an issue that did not really matter? Television archives from the time show that,
40 years ago, the issue of civil rights for all raised
the blood pressure of those on both sides. Was this an issue that did not really matter?
It is an insult to the voters of 28B to be told that they have their priorities completely askew. I, for one, believe that few issues really matter more than whether we are willing to kill our young for our own convenience and wealth and whether we are willing to see beyond our nativistic tendencies and find a way to safely welcome to our blessed way of life those who are persecuted abroad by poverty and totalitarianism.
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