I am extremely disappointed with the editorial cartoon that ran in the Jan. 8 edition of the Sun Journal. The cartoon, which suggests that “old racial politics” are at the heart of the Republican Party, was offensive and not at all funny given the extreme racial challenges our own community is now dealing with.
The Republican Party, which celebrates as its founder the Great Emancipator Abraham Lincoln, has long supported equal rights and equal opportunity for all. It was Republican Dwight Eisenhower who sent troops to Little Rock to enforce a Supreme Court school desegregation ruling and signed into law the first civil rights bill since Reconstruction. During the debate over the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, it was the Senate Republicans, voting by a more than 80 percent margin to end a filibuster, who drove the bill to passage.
Today we are a party that embraces Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream of judging people by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin. Rep. J.C. Watts of Oklahoma sought and secured a Republican leadership position in Congress.
Likewise, we are all very proud of the job people like Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Advisory Condoleeza Rice are doing as top advisors to the president in the war on terrorism.
Closer to home, Republicans are standing in opposition to the white supremacist group that is bringing its message of hate and intolerance to Lewiston. Those of us in the Legislature offered our unanimous support to a resolution condemning this hate group and many party leaders will be attending this weekend’s diversity events.
We want everyone to feel welcome in our community regardless of where they came from or how long they have been here.
Rep. Michael Vaughan, chairman
Androscoggin County Republican Committee,
Durham
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