Voter ponders candidates’ righteousness

Letters to the editor are opinion editorials submitted by readers. Letters to the editor are a long tradition in American journalism. The views and opinions of the writer do not necessarily reflect those of Mason County Press, its staff or its parent company. For more information, please refer to MCP’s Letter to the Editor Policy.

Dear Editor,

Two candidates at the voters’ forum held October 17, at West Shore Community College, said they stood for righteousness: Mike Shaw, running to represent the 5th Ward on the Ludington City Council; and Joe Fox, running to represent Michigan House District 101.

Shaw is endorsed by Sheriff Kim Cole. Cole also endorses Donald Trump. Trump endorses—that is, publicly expresses support for or approval of—insurrectionists and dictators. So I wondered, What does it really mean to be righteous? The dictionary definition is “acting in accord with divine or moral law, free from guilt or sin, morally right or justifiable, arising from an outraged sense of justice or morality,” which raises the question “Morally right or justifiable according to whom?”

Inherent in the definition is the implication that the righteous judge other people and that their perceived moral superiority justifies them to compel those other people to believe or act as they do—or in the case of righteous politicians, to make decisions that not only impose their personal mores on their constituents but that may also include punitive consequences for socalled violators.

I’m being judgmental myself now, but it seems to me that politicians who proclaim their own righteousness lack humility. I don’t want our public servants to take “a brave stand for righteousness.” I want them to be good, decent, respectable human beings—mere mortals—who make decisions that improve quality of life for all and support our individual freedom to live an authentic life of our own choosing.

Karla McLouth
Fountain

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