I’m sure you remember Michelle Obama’s speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention where she reminded us to fight back when civility is threatened. We should not stoop low to partisan attacks, but demonstrate our values of fairness, inclusion and respect.
On the last day of the Humboldt County Fair, Jackie Cory put Michelle’s words into action while working at the Democratic booth. She was confronted by a handout from the Republican booth. The handout supposedly contrasted the beliefs of Republicans and Democrats. See below.
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Jackie immediately took the handout over to the Republican booth and asked for an explanation. She was outraged at the description of Democratic values. The Republican volunteer snickered as Jackie spoke. Jackie said that she would drop by the Humboldt County Republican office and discuss the handout with staff.
What follows below is Jackie and Lydia’s visit to the Republican office:
“Lydia and I visited the Humboldt County Republican office today to make inquiries about the handout at the fair. We were greeted by two men, one of whom was an 86 year old man who was the primary spokesman. I asked him if he knew that the handout was distributed at the fair and it appeared that he did. He was definitely familiar with it. He told us that it came from the website of a man who unsuccessfully ran for chairman of the California Republican party.
We told him that the descriptors did not describe us. Furthermore, it was okay for them to state the beliefs of their party, but not okay to ascribe inflammatory beliefs to Democrats. I told him that the Humboldt County Democratic handouts only spoke to party values and that not a word was said about the Republicans.
He told us that the Republicans believe in the nuclear family and that the biggest thing that Democrats worry about is transgender bathrooms. He said that Democrats will say anything to defeat Trump. Lydia pointed out that the handout talked about extremes and that their words were divisive and hateful. Chuck stated that there are no moderate Democrats. He said there are some Republicans who believe in open borders so they can have cheap labor. The younger man stated that the Democrats want to turn everything into socialism.
Both men were wary because of vandalism to their office. It also seems that they have encountered some people who were not polite. They thanked us for talking to them politely. We suppose that the next step would be to find out the origin of the handout and send it to the Republican Central Committee to see if they are aware of its distribution.
Although nothing was solved and no minds were changed, at least we showed them that there could be a polite exchange of ideas.”
Thank you, Jackie and Lydia, for exemplifying Indivisible Ferndale’s values of fairness and respect!
Together, We are Indivisible Ferndale!
Thank you to Jacki and Lydia for going high when they went low.
Thank you for standing up for the Democratic Party.