Dayton Chronicle - Your Hometown News Source

To the editor,

I'm originally from a town in Alaska called Ketchikan, 15,000-ish people, last time I checked. My dad still lives there, and recently sent me a shot from the local paper advertising a "Drag Queen Story Time" at the Public Library―with special guest Luna! It's a fitting name, I guess―Chesterton noted that "the moon is the mother of lunatics and has given to them all her name."

So, I don't hold "Luna" responsible for this insanity, rather the long line of entirely sane cowards who signed off on letting a man in gross caricature of femininity and womanhood parade his bizarre sexual fetish in front of a group of children. It seems a tenuous connection, this new fad of transvestites and Library storybook readings, but only if you're caught in the trap of thinking it has anything to do with transvestites and storybook readings.

It's simple conditioning. Dare people not to tolerate the latest wild aberration thrown at them. Dare them not to celebrate. Dare them to be the first to stop applauding.

Oddly enough, this letter is a political endorsement. I bring up the "drag queen story hour" thing because it's a great example of how easily sheer madness can take hold in the presence of so many reasonable people, and how quickly those same reasonable people will shed their principles in the interest of getting along, or at least presenting the appearance of getting along lest they be pilloried as "extremists." My guess is that the Ketchikan "Drag Queen Story Hour" went off without a hitch―all blue hair, rainbows, and confusion. Rewind a decade and not a soul in Ketchikan would have seen themselves or the town standing silently in the background in the face of such an inversion of reality and decency...but a lot can change in a decade. Timid, eager-to-appease leaders and noodle-spined citizens are a contagion of weakness that acts as a magnet for activism, and before long the affront to decency is no longer the man in stilettos and a miniskirt twerking in front of a bunch of stunned six-year-olds at the Public Library, but the bigot who would dare voice an opposition to it.

My political endorsement is for Chuck Amerein for Columbia County Commissioner. I won't speak for his particular policy positions or even his character in general; the awards he's won, the things he's done, how much he loves Dayton, what a nice guy he is, his ability to make wise compromise, his deal-making skills, his political acumen, or that he helped me move once when I hardly knew him. I don't even know much about that stuff as far as Chuck Amerein goes―other than he never helped me move.

What I will say about Amerein is that he possesses the one thing that I find most valuable in a leader of any kind―the combination of conviction and courage. Unfortunate that this is such a rare quality, but fortunate (for me, anyway) that Amerein seems to be someone who, to a large degree, shares my convictions and―most importantly―I can reasonably count on to stand up for them when the time comes. In short, he would never be described as "timid" or "eager-to-appease," rather the opposite, as evidenced by the continuous stream of vitriol sent in his direction, which he doesn't appear to care about one way or the other.

I've yet to see the local library testing the waters of its own "Drag Queen Story Hour" (though by the look of the kid's section it might not be far off), but if they do, I can imagine Amerein, in his opposition to it, would not be cowed by all the familiar histrionics. A politician's response in such bizarre cultural skirmishes is a good sign of what their response would be in more dire situations. When the health department has issued orders that you will report to the clinic for all due vaccinations or be visited by a Vaccination Enforcement Team...when Child Protective Services shows up to take custody of your child for your lack of acquiescence to his supposed request for gender reassignment... when the Feds have been summoned in response to Red-Flag accusations of "hate speech"...when the Governor has issued the executive order to confiscate firearms from anyone investigated by the Feds for "hate speech"...and so on. That all seems a little hyperbolic until you start reading the news.

And what do I think Amerein's response would be? All possible political avenues of course, but when all that has failed and Tyranny, with its ever-present entourage of good intentions, is walking up to your front door, I believe that―despite your protests―he would join you there...and not to go quietly.

Vote to re-elect Chuck Amerein for Columbia County Commissioner.

Seth Murdock

Dayton, Wash.

Columbia County