The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

Dear Editors:

I read the letter in last week’s paper written by Regina Weldert, a valued, productive business owner in our county and a beloved friend to many. That there should be one ounce of fear in her for her own safety as well as her other trans friends in Washington or across the country, is a statement of failure on the part of all of us that call ourselves Americans. We founded this country not on Judeo-Christian standards, but on the freedom of the individual and the freedom of independence. When our Declaration of Independence speaks to the right to pursue happiness, it doesn’t specify what that happiness looks like or for that matter, what it wears. It simply states that we have the right to pursue our happiness, whether that be fishing or fishnet stockings, whether that be hunting or bunting, whether that be guns or buns. No where does it mention that if my pursuit of happiness doesn’t agree with your Christian values, that that pursuit must cease. 

Somewhere along the way, especially of late, many within the Republican party, to which I am a member, have decided to kowtow to the pressures from the members of far-right conservative and often Evangelical factions. And they are hell-bent on forcing their beliefs and their ‘morals, which are incredibly questionable, onto others. The Republican party, hopefully, is wising up to this and realizing that to be held to task by those who would wish to smother the rights of others, is to walk hand in hand with disaster. 

There are people within our own county that have made themselves known, very clearly and boldly, that if they do not get what they want, including the banning of certain books, they will dismantle that which makes them uncomfortable. They have used threats against those that speak out against them including threats to other’s employment, their homes, and even made threats of bodily harm, specifically towards the current library director. They have used inflammatory words like ‘groomer’ and ‘pedophile’ to paint not just the library director, but anyone that stands beside him against the banning of books as well as against the dissolving of the rural library district. When these community members are called out by name for their behaviors they scream that they are being bullied. 

Well, if standing up to this fear-based behavior, if speaking out against threats made to others in this community, including the library director and the library board, if standing up for our LGBTQ+ community members or standing up in defense of personal liberties and freedoms makes us bullies then I proudly wear that name. 

But I will tell you this; you spelled bully wrong – we spell it A L L Y 

Vicki Zoller

Dayton, WA