Letter: Several steps too far

Here’s the problem, Don: you are not the customer they are seeking. They want to be a blue outpost in a blue city. They have to appeal to their clientele, regardless of the truth of the matter. Via today’s Moscow-Pullman Daily News: 

It is general knowledge locally that the editors of the Daily News are “in the tank” for the Democratic Party, and have been for years, but Wolverton’s Aug. 21 editorial cartoon on the Opinion Page went several steps too far.

Have you no shame? Show me, Daily News. Show me one single tangible piece of evidence that equates the National Rifle Association – which was founded, in part, by Northern clergymen in the aftermath of the Civil War and Reconstruction to arm and train freed Southern blacks so they could defend themselves against the KKK – with “white supremacists,” the Nazi party, either the original NSDAP in Germany in the ’30s and ’40s or the latter-day American Nazi Party and the KKK.

I have been a member of the NRA since I was 14 years old. I served my country in uniform and retired after 22-plus years as a lieutenant colonel, got my master’s degree at the University of Idaho, and then taught in the Moscow public schools for 17 years. The NRA now has 5 million members, not one of which has ever been involved in a mass shooting or a terrorist incident. You might consider, before you condemn the NRA, that Dr. Martin Luther King was a Life Member.

There’s a reason, even though I used to be a contributing columnist to the paper, that I long ago canceled my subscription. A friend brought Monday’s paper over to show me the editorial cartoon, outraged by it. There is very little chance that I will, under the present management, ever subscribe again.

Donald Kaag
Moscow

And this one: 

I was extremely disappointed by your editorial cartoon linking NRA members with Nazis. While the 5 million dues-paying members of the NRA certainly have a variety of political opinions, the organization as a whole is focused on protecting the rights of everyone to have effective means of self defense.

Many laws restricting firearms rights were introduced after the Civil War as a means of controlling the black population and the NRA has fought to remove them. During the early ’60s, black Americans formed NRA clubs and purchased firearms through the Civilian Marksmanship Program. An example is Robert Williams’ Black Armed Guard which drove off a KKK attack on the NAACP leader in Monroe, N.C., with rifle fire.

 

The NRA is a single-issue civil rights organization. In other areas they do not take a position. The NRA Institute for Legislative Action supported Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, a liberal Democrat, because he opposed laws restricting gun rights. Similarly the ACLU has defended the free-speech rights of some very offensive organizations, because they realize that everyone has rights.

We can’t control who wears an NRA ball cap, but the organization will continue to support the right of all honest people to keep and bear arms, regardless of color or political opinion. You owe them an apology.

 

Mike Finkbiner
Moscow