http://registerguard.com/rg/opinion...nst-those-who-insult-our-ideals.html.cspYou call me racist. You call me sexist. You call me ignorant. Sadly, this is not uncommon in America.
A disheartening example is President Obama’s infamous condemnation of the right: “It’s not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them.”
To what do I owe this honor? I am a Caucasian who goes to church. I intentionally married a woman who wanted to be a stay-at-home mom. I believe that it is wrong to kill another human being at any stage of life. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness — these are the simple liberties of a free society.
Yet I am reviled.
On May 6 I took my daughter, a high school senior, to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign rally in Eugene — a chance to witness history. Trump put on a good show and we left. As we walked to the car, we passed two people holding anti-Trump signs, shouting “Racist!” toward people leaving the rally.
I stopped. They were alarmed. One of them declared, “I have the right to free speech!” I agreed and allowed them to make their case. They repeated a few throw-away lines, such as “Love, not walls.” I then asked for my turn to make my point. “No!” they spat.
Vladimir Lenin’s quote immediately came to mind: “A lie, told often enough, becomes the truth.” Genocide, not liberty, is Lenin’s legacy.
My grandfather, Leo J. Herrera, came to America from Mexico, lawfully. My grandmother, Elizabeth Windt, came to America from Germany, lawfully. They met and married. English was not their native language, but they spoke it anyway. They wanted to become Americans.
I ask nothing more, nor less, of other immigrants — enter lawfully, speak English, become Americans. But you call me “racist.”
You call me sexist. The left sees itself as “pro-choice.” My wife and I have four children. My wife chose to be a stay-at-home mom. Nevertheless, the left denigrates my wife’s choice to raise her children. Worse, the left sees men and women as interchangeable, neither having any inherent value different than the other.
The left is mistaken. Women have gifts that men do not — bringing forth life is feminine, not masculine. Saint John Paul II said it best in his Apostolic Exhortation on the Family: “The Church can and should help modern society by tirelessly insisting that the work of women in the home be recognized and respected by all in its irreplaceable value.”
I will send my second daughter to college in the fall. She will find her own path. Some of my advice she will take, some she won’t. If she chooses motherhood over money and career, I will not count my tuition dollars as wasted. Sadly, I expect the left to damn her with faint praise.
You call me ignorant. You tell me it is wrong to be a skeptic. This is odd when one considers that science is most simply defined as “skepticism, organized.” The scientific method requires continuous inquiry, testing and verification. I do not claim to know everything. But I do have a bachelor of science degree from the University of California, Davis, and a law degree from the University of Oregon. I can apply verifiable facts to difficult problems.
Lately, we have struggled with the rights of transgender and similarly situated people. Lost in this debate are the few verifiable facts. We know that a person’s 23rd chromosome is the primary determinant of gender — XX for female and XY for male. Ordinarily, this is conclusive, but not always.
Dutch track athlete Foekje Dillema was banned from competition in 1950 and stripped of her records after she failed a “sex test.” A study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine shed some light on her condition, stating: “Decades later, DNA analysis indicates that Foekje Dillema had a 46,XX/46,XY mosaic condition.” She had both XX (female) and XY (male) genes.
Olympic Gold Medalist Bruce Jenner is an XY male. He has recently transitioned to Caitlyn Jenner in a very public manner. This is clinically termed gender dysphoria. Jenner and Dillema have completely different situations and require different solutions. Contrast this to Obama’s one-size-fits-all public school bathroom mandate.
Yet you call me “ignorant.”
I will not submit to the left’s labeling me “racist” or “sexist” or “ignorant.” My children do not know why I am so hated, but I am. Tellingly, Jenner states, “I have gotten more flak for being a conservative Republican than I have for being trans.” Which brings me back to Donald Trump. Trump is no savior. What he is is a fighter. And he has chosen to fight those who hate me, hate my wife, hate my family and hate my church.
So I am all in.
Brian Thompson practices law in Eugene.
BMT
