I couldn’t help reading with amusement the number of stories in the OA about Councilman Vasquez as a Democrat voting in the Republican primary and 600 other recognized Democrats doing the same.
It’s not the first time and not the last that someone will cross over for the explicit intent of hoping to deny someone an office. I did the same thing years ago when I voted democratic in a primary to keep Hillary Clinton off the ballot.
It is a shame that our current system requires you declare for one of the major parties in order to vote in a primary. I have to do it now even though I am an independent.
I am glad these folks did it to try and bring back more civility into our local politics. Mr. Crow is correct in his interpretation of the current rules, but that doesn’t make them right. I am glad to see that we are going to have some contested races for city government this fall.
I hope someone will file for each contested race so that hopefully we can get back to the “Big 5” needs our current mayor has suddenly discovered needs to be prioritized.
While I’m at it, I want to comment on the colossal failure of the Secret Service at the Trump Rally in PA. Anyone in security should know you don’t leave high ground uncovered with a clear line of sight to the potential target at that distance.
In my opinion, the real hero’s in saving Mr. Trump’s life are the citizens who pointed out the young man crawling on the roof of the building and the officer who climbed up and was confronted with the rifle pointing at him.
I feel certain that this caused Mr. Crooks to hurriedly get into position and snap off his shots that thankfully went wide of Mr. Trump but unfortunately killed one and severely wounded two others. Had he had a few more seconds to sight in he would have killed Mr. Trump.
So far, no reason has been found for the attempt but when all is said and done, I feel it will be found that he had been bullied, was a loner, felt invisible, engaged in violent video games, and had been radicalized by the comments circulating on social media.
He felt he was a nobody and this was going to be his way of becoming recognized. There are so many lessons that can be learned from this tragedy that my prayer is that we learn from it and can recommit ourselves to God’s holy word to love our neighbors as we love ourselves and be able to discuss our differing beliefs in a congenial manner and accept the outcomes.
Charles Cotten
