August 15, 2021
Dear editor;
After reading the challenge to a previous week’s contributor by Joan Solms in the August 12 issue of The Voice (thevoice.us/readers-voice-a-challenge-to-writer-to-meet), I was prompted to retrieve my copy of the August 5 issue in an effort to identify and understand what sort of reprehensible contribution I had missed, and which possibly could provoke such a vitriolic response from Ms Solms.
After finding and reading again Marjorie Logman’s contribution(“Climbing the steps finds truth”(thevoice.us/readers-voice-climbing-the-steps-finds-truth) which concluded with the phrase “…then we can move forward together in peace, love, and justice,” I was only further compelled to consider more thoughtfully the words of each writer. Having done so, I could only conclude that either Ms Solms missed the word some used repeatedly by Ms Logman, or that she considers herself to be among the some to which Ms Logman refers.
As Ms Logman points out, indeed some Republicans, some Christians, some veterans, and some of the pulpit cling to and attempt to perpetuate a variety of untruths, evidenced by their own words regarding what we saw with our own eyes January 6, or the dismissal by various federal judges, both Republican as well as Democratic, of more than 50 lawsuits which have challenged the legitimacy of the 2020 election. Science has made clear the effectiveness of our vaccines in combating the pandemic. Those data speak for themselves.
I’m reminded of a quote often attributed to Carl Sandburg, one of Illinois’ most notable favorite sons of the past: “If the facts are against you, argue the law. If the law is against you, argue the facts. If the law and the facts are against you, pound the table and yell like hell.” It seems that there is currently far too much pounding and yelling being done by some among us.
Let us all hope that we don’t escalate to 20 paces with dueling pistols at high noon on the streets of the United States.
Vince Smith, Big Rock