I understand a few of you are – once again – upset by my columns and editorials.
So I am too negative, you say? Too vitriolic? What about the negative, vitriolic slash-and-burn tactics of the extreme right-wingers and Tea Party wackos who have been attacking our president and virtually every Democrat in this country? Do you also take issue with their vitriol?
What would you prefer? A jolly Pollyanna viewpoint week after week about just how wonderful everything is?
Right-wing destroyers have been dishing it out, with name-calling cruelty, and I – for one – am going to throw it back.
To Pastor Wright specifically, one would think you, as a religious leader, would trumpet the cause of justice and preach against right-wing lies and distortions. Don’t you understand how these extremists, including this spate of so-called Republican candidates, are trying their best to push kindness and human progress back by at least five decades? Don’t you think those throw-backs should be criticized, satirized and even lambasted for the way they have been trashing all of the good people who are trying to make positive changes in this country?
If you want to hear viciousness, just tune into right-wing media once!
I do not believe in “turning the other cheek” – not when responding to right-wing extremists. I am a diehard Democrat, leftist-leaning, and I am very proud of it. If the extreme right-wingers can shoot their mouths off (clunk-heads and gas-bags like Rush Limbaugh, to name just one), so can I and so I must, as a democratic duty. Those right-wing haters, have been spewing their lies and distortions almost constantly, 24 hours a day, via every media outlet imaginable. I, for one, will counter their trash every chance I get.
You have expressed the Sartell Newsleader’s leftist editorial views are not compatible with the majority of the residents of Sartell. It may be true there are more conservatives than liberals in Sartell, but I would bet most Republicans in Sartell are not as rabid, as vicious, as negative or as mendacious as the current crop of “Republican” presidential candidates, the ones I’ve lampooned.
I would also bet many, many members of your congregation are not nearly as conservative as you imagine them to be. I know, because several of them are my friends, including some who happen to be influential in the city and beyond.
Of course, I do not expect all readers to agree with my opinions. If they disagree, fine. They can write a letter-to-editor or a guest column. They can decline to advertise. However, there are many people in your congregation who have called, emailed or told me in person throughout the years they agree wholeheartedly with my opinions.
And even if Sartell were, in fact, a bastion of conservatism, that is all the more reason I should publish my liberal views, as a possible antidote to that kind of majority clump-conformity that can lead to a form of social, if not individual, bullyism – even against local newspapers.
As a man who preaches the Gospel, week after week, you of all people should understand why it is necessary – even a sacred duty – to question the powers that be, the status-quo, and to counterattack the reactionaries who want to turn back hard-won progress. Those termites are the ones who are vicious – not me. You should join in the struggle. Isn’t that what Christ did to the money-changers in the temple?
As you know (or ought to know), the Sartell Newsleader has published every letter-to-editor submitted by readers who disagree with my viewpoints during the past 12 years I’ve been with this newspaper. We have also accommodated right-wing guest columns.
It always amuses me when my haters think their letters won’t be published. Then, when we publish their opinions, they have egg on their faces when (voila!) there they are in print right next to vicious radical Dalman. I truly hope someday all of you will realize I am not negative or nasty except when it comes to defending human progress against the haters.
I have written many dozens of ultra-positive stories for the past decade or more. And even though you may not agree with my “negative” opinion pieces, I dare you to find one negative story I have ever written about a Sartell individual or a Sartell entity. We will never improve this world by being goo-goo nice all the time.
Maybe someday you will figure out it’s not me or liberals who are so negative or nasty; it’s those right-wingers who claim to cherish life but celebrate hate.