Cumberland Times-News

Opinion

September 5, 2010

Which do you prefer, open minds or stuck in the mud?

To the Editor: Cumberland Times-News

— I appreciate the replies to my letter concerning progressives (“Progressives have been heart, soul of America,” Aug. 25).

It’s good to dialogue, gain some clarity and have a civil conversation. We need more education and understanding on many subjects in this country in order to save something we love.

But I don’t think it helps to speak to the motives of progressives until you can look into their minds and intentions. As your words reflect your understanding of what a progressive is, I can see why you might find us troubling.

On the contrary, the progressive movement has always stood with the individual. When dealing with human and civil rights — from politics, to church, to workplace, to the corporate world — progressives have been there as the first to stand up and try to bring a better world.

Without brave and battered progressives, children would still be sewing in sweat shops, young boys would be digging in unsafe mines, women would still be the property of their husbands and no of property of their own, synagogues and Catholic churches would be barred from some neighborhoods, we’d still live in a segregated world, and parents would have to live with the heartache of shunning their own gay and lesbian children.

The Republican Party, and others, have been determined for years to roll back changes that the New Deal brought, benefitting the individual. Fear-mongering and distortion have been used before — always a part of the discussion.

Corporate interests and wealth have looked after their own groups. If Liberals have to vote to “push” something, when people are programmed not to understand the benefits, okay. And, if Republicans have to be the party of no — that’s fine, too. This is a Democracy — that’s politics.

Wars with borrowed money, tax breaks for those with more than they could spend in a lifetime, and unfunded senior’s drugs — conservative deficit spending.

No jobs, no tax revenue to help a reversal — while a vote on a funded bill to create jobs and help small businesses is blocked for political reasons.

Elitists, we are not. Progressives don’t promote the status quo. They don’t say, “I have mine, so who cares about those in need.” I see Progressives with open minds, hearts and hands. I see Conservatives as rigid thinking, stuck in the mud.

Thank God, in this country we are free to have and express our own views. Check your sources.

Cynthia S. Knight

Grantsville

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