The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

To the Editor,

What is freedom?

It is defined as ‘the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action’ -

For most of us it means the right and privilege to live our lives OUR WAY without others telling us what we can or cannot do. And if we do that without causing harm to others, that is exactly what should be happening in our community. However, it feels less and less free as we deal with the consequences of recent elections.

We have ideology driven elected officials that hold a world view that isn’t based on freedom, yet they wave our national flag as if they believe in true freedom. But then also use that flag, like the point of a gun, to threaten to withhold OUR tax dollars from an after-school program unless they consider hanging that flag in their building. They use THEIR ideology to tell our community that THEIR personal, political, and religious views on child rearing and childcare will be what is used to deny the building of a childcare facility on Port property. They use the eternal ‘communist’ boogeyman to create fear of change and of people that look, worship, think and vote differently than they do. My grandmother was born in the late 1800’s and joined a new-age religion back in the 20s – they were terrified of the communists back then too. They had chants and prayers to keep them from attacking the shores of the US. We saw the fear of communism roll through again in the late 40s/50s with the McCarthy Era. And it seems we have entered another fear cycle.

Fear is not a good place to lead from. It is an inhibitor in making thoughtful, well-rounded, and logical choices that serve the entire community. Fear inhibits freedom. It restricts it and if leaders are leading from fear, they will begin to restrict the freedoms of those they are here to serve. And that seems to be the direction we are headed.

As a Republican and a firm believer in personal freedoms, it concerns me that people who once ran under the Republican banner and are now CCC members and elected officials, are, through their words and deeds, threatening the personal freedoms of our county citizens by making decisions based on ideology that isn’t freedom-centric. None of us need them to decide for us how to raise our children, how we should display our patriotism, or how we should do ANYTHING in our personally free lives. It’s not any of their business. And frankly, moral busybodies have no place in leadership.

Vicki Zoller

Dayton, Wash.