Letter: Right-wing comments were embarrassing

This letter is in response to the comments in last week’s article about the town hall-style meeting held with the Senate leaders.
Although I was not in attendance, some of the comments quoted in the paper were very disturbing. Normally I can just sit back and read this foolishness, but having a 15-month-old son who will grow up in Meeker, I cannot ignore the blatant ignorance that people have toward the government and society as a whole.
The first quote I would like to comment on comes from Michelle Pollock “I don’t want to pay taxes to kill babies.” Mrs. Pollock are you completely crazy? What kind of a comment is that? I assume since you were talking to the state representatives you think Colorado is out to kill babies.
The next comment I thought was completely inappropriate was, “The Bible should intervene with my marriage, not the government. My Bible and my Lord tell me how to train my child.” Ma’am, with all due respect for you and your child, you do not ‘train’ children, you teach them. As a parent, you have the responsibility to do so in an open minded and responsible manner. You can train your dog, not your child.
And finally a quote from Mr. Del Turner, “In Rifle, when they introduce Wal-Mart special in Spanish, I know something is up.” What is up, is that you live in America. There are many languages spoken here. I can assure you, people were speaking Spanish in America long before the English language was introduced to this part of the world. Wal-Mart is not a government run business, why would you bother state representatives with how Wal-Mart is running its business? I would guess that you are one of the people that are complaining about how the government is infringing on your personal choices. Why would you complain to a state representative about a private business matter? If I could give any advice to you, if you don’t want to hear Spanish being spoken, don’t shop at Wal-Mart.
Having two state representatives come to Meeker to listen to questions is a perfect opportunity to talk about education, infrastructure, state unemployment, housing problems. Instead, these people choose to cling on to non-productive right-wing propaganda.
As I stated earlier, I normally don’t respond to these opinions in the paper, but it is one thing when you embarrass yourselves, but another when you embarrass the town of Meeker.
Josh Halstead
Meeker