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To the editor:
Just stop! What is your obsession with trans people and drag shows? Why do you, weirdly, always, wrongly assume something sexual regarding these people that you do not know and will never meet? There is seriously something wrong with you if the first thought you have at the acknowledgment of the reality that these people have always and will always be a part of our world is "they're pedophiles grooming our children."
Drag is older than that book you claim to follow -- you know, the one that teaches you not to hate. ... and now innocent people are dead!
Yes, I am mad! All of you people, and you know who you are, that ever speak ill of these (as an aside, I say these not those, there is a difference, a nuance that is lost on those whom subscribe to the propaganda of the right) people, fellow humans simply existing, need to know that words have consequences and those consequences are that now the friends and family members of our fellow Americans are needlessly dead!
Sadly, at this point, I don't even need to identify which atrocity committed against which group of targeted neighbors gunned down as that there will most likely be another one before this letter is printed but no, it is the nightclub in Colorado Springs that has me so furious. This would not have happened if you people would have not spread your hateful rhetoric to susceptible young minds (grooming) and then giving them unfettered access to weapons of war.
You people need to check yourselves. Words have meanings and power and they should be used with care and prudence.
I endeavor to live by The Four Agreements (I highly recommend looking into this if you are unfamiliar, it may change your life) the first of which is to be impeccable with your word: speak with integrity; say only what you mean; avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others; use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love. This is a principle the GOP has shredded. Lies are repeated until perceived as truth. Assumptions of others elevated to facts then weaponized for stochastic terrorism's inevitable outcome of someone grabbing their fascist cosplay gear and weapons of war to gun down innocent people, minding their own business, enjoying themselves in "the freest country in the world."
Words have power. There is a clear line between the words of the right towards trans people and drag queens and the senseless death that occurred at The Q Nightclub on Nov. 19. Beatrix Potter said it best through the mother of Peter Rabbit scolding him "If you ain't got nothing nice to say, don't say nothing at all!"
Eric Becht
Mifflintown