My Point of View by John Forman

I attended the Republican caucus, and I was pleasantly surprised to see Rep. Jim Hagedorn in attendance. He spoke of the importance of the Freeborn County GOP to his victory in 2018 and asked for continued support in 2020. He thanked everyone for our support and prayers in his fight against cancer. He looked fit, and when I asked if he was planning on being in our Third of July parade, he said he was planning on it. He also talked about his continued support for President Trump and talked about the many successes of the Trump administration. Hagedorn and Rep. Peggy Bennett also talked about the need to support everyone up and down the party ticket, as we have a chance to regain control of the House and increase the lead in the Senate. They also requested our support for Gene Dorinick for our state Senate District 27 seat.

Peggy Bennett also spoke both at the general group meeting and visited each of the caucus group meetings. She thanked us for past support and asked for support in 2020. She also talked about legislation she is working on, and talked about legislation to exempt Social Security payments from state taxes.

Peggy also talked about fighting to keep local control over our education system, especially when it comes to sex education. I find it strange that many of the same people who have complained about state standards in education and having to teach to the test rather than giving teachers more control over their curriculum are now asking for more state control over sex education. Some local Democrats seem to invoke the Southern Poverty Law Center’s declaration of groups who oppose state-run sex education as hate groups. So what about the Southern Poverty Law Center? This left-leaning origination has declared 1,020 groups as hate groups in 2018. There are many political and news people who disagree with many of these designations. The center admits that all condemned groups are conservative groups and also state on their web page that many of these groups are not engaged in any illegal or violent activities, but they interpret some of their members or group activities to be against one or more groups they want to protect. In other words, they claim to be mind-readers who can interpret the motives of individuals or groups. Notice that they declare all group members as haters, but why? They go right to hate. There are no stages of dislike or lesser charge. They go right to hate. They define hate as being against their views, so I have to assume they also hate those with differing views from their own — which could make the Southern Poverty Law Center the largest hate group of all. Some Democrats seem to have become entangled in hate. I cannot count the number of times I hear “I hate Trump,” “When is someone going to shoot Trump?” or “Trump should be hung.” They send demonstrators to disrupt town hall meetings held by conservative office holders.

Unlike the Southern Poverty Law Center does when they find what they refer to as hate, I refuse to declare all the Democratic Party as haters. I know many personally that can discuss differing points of view without hate. And I hope that a time will come when differing opinions are viewed by all as just difference of opinions and we move away from the word hate. By the way, if you are a Democrat, vote for Bernie. Wait — I don’t remember writing that. The Russians must have hacked my computer.

John Forman is a member of the Freeborn County Republican Party.