Below the fold is my open letter to Ned Lamont's campaign. When I heard the news today that the Lamont campaign was having Terri Schiavo's husband campaign for them, I was heartsick that we on the left are using the politics of personality and personal destruction to run a political campaign.
I have sent this letter to The Stamford Advocate, in Stamford, CT, in the hope they will run it. In the event they won't - at least some of you out here will have seen it.
To the Editor:
This is an open letter to the Lamont Campaign -
The intrusion by the federal government, including members of Congress, into the personal tragedy surrounding Terri Schiavo's life and death was a moral debacle and a truly disgusting event in our national political history.
I am now equally disgusted that the Lamont campaign is dragging this poor woman's memory out of the grave and away from the realm of private grief and suffering once again, merely to facilitate a senatorial primary race in the state of Connecticut.
What good can come of these tactics, which are so like the tactics we all abhor in other campaigns?
As an unaffiliated voter in the state of Connecticut, I have no say in the primary, but I am one of many unaffiliated voters in Connecticut who contribute to the life of the community here.
I see the tactics of Lamont's campaign as destructive, demoralizing, and a huge distraction from the real issues that concern us all. Who are we, as Americans and citizens of Connecticut, and how will we live good and productive lives in our communities?
Joe Lieberman is not a good representative for the state of Connecticut but, using negative tactics like the one of disinterring Terri Schiavo, how can we know that Ned Lamont will bring us the significant change we need in our representative government?
We need to hold ourselves to the higher standard we wish from others. I beg Ned Lamont, his campaign, and the voters of the state of Connecticut not to become the thing that you oppose.
Patricia Taylor