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Radicalizing People Who Don’t Agree with Your Politics

The fear-mongering about socialism and dismantling the American values is frankly a scare-tactic that is obscene

By Sheila Shapiro

Clearly Mr. Ryan Zinke (Sept. 9 Beacon: “America Under Seige) is trying to portray a middle-of-the-road “mindedness” that America is under siege, but his hair catches on fire during this attempt. The fear-mongering about socialism and dismantling the American values is frankly a scare-tactic that is obscene. Once again, we hear of another Invisible Enemy of our “shining city on a hill.” If you’ll remember Ronald Reagan shut down mental health care, which in turn released thousands of mentally ill patients out onto the streets into homelessness, so what hill was he thinking?

Sadly, I believe a lot of us are not on that hill either, Ryan. And attempts at scaling it are not for the faint-of-heart or “societal cancers,” as you label them. Peacefully protesting is protected under our Constitution, and yes, people are frustrated and protesting. It’s part of civil disobedience. Violence is not being advocated, but perpetrated, but not by legitimate protestors; even this president seems to be encouraging it. I have never heard him once stand to call for any sort of peace, not even to his “base.” The more inflamed they become, the better. Am I missing something here? So what plan for social justice and reform of institutional racism does this provide? Isn’t this divisive behavior encouraging another type of mob behavior? Yes, there are internal, inherent problems, which must not be fought by our great military or soley policed by our brave law enforcement. Recognition is arising that they aren’t the fix, nor should they be. The idea of reform is meant to support them in areas they weren’t trained for (i.e., the mentally ill). Nor should privatized “security” be used to infiltrate these protesting areas. In investigating our privatized “security” in this country, I find it is another big business with little-to-no accountability. Is that who we want to be our siege-masters? That makes me shudder to think about the implications. There is no quick fix here. But, in all good faith, be part of the solution, Ryan, and stop radicalizing people, such as myself, because I don’t agree with your politics.

Sheila Shapiro
Whitefish