~a column by Colleen O’Brien
The following email was sent via anonymousemail to the editor of this news source:
“Dear Ms. O’Brien,
“I voted tor Trump. You think you know people like me and what motivates us, but you don’t have a clue nor do you care to understand. You have your reality and nothing’s ever gonna change your mind.
“Be that as it may, I’m over it. Everybody I know who voted for Trump is over it. You’re obviously not over it. You keep going on and on and on and on and on about it. You see, it’s not that we love Trump. It’s more that we can’t deal with your side’s hypocrisy and duplicity. You’re not helping.
“Regards,
Over
I am so thrilled to get a letter to the editor about my column, even if the letter is not praising me but condemning me, that I thank you for it. That’s what columns are for – to let people be satisfied because they agree or angry because they don’t. So few people ever write to columnists that I have to thank you again, Anon.
And for the record, you aren’t helping, either.
I could have answered your letter to the editor privately if you’d asked. But it’s usually difficult to answer an anonymous note – no return address, you see. Although because I’m a working writer with a forum, I’m doing it. For future notes from you, they won’t be printed if you ask them not to be. They will merely be sent on to me; all you have to do is say so, and the editor will do so.
I’m up for the open discussion of what appears to be an opposing point of view. Or, I’m up for a private discussion.
To answer a couple of your statements: I do not even pretend to think I know people like you nor what motivates you. This is not a diss, just a fact; and I would like to know. I continue to write my point of view, knowing that many people do not agree with me. They don’t have to.
So far, when I’ve asked for reasons why others think unlike I think, I’m not belligerent or starting a fight, I’m honestly curious.
Many of them say I’ve disliked Trump from the beginning and that I was trying to get him out of his job for four years. That is correct, so some of my opponents do know how I think.
Apparently, you do get it that I’m not “over it.” This is glaringly true. One of the reasons I don’t seem to get over it is that he continues to meddle in government business in a way that is disruptive, divisive and therefore non-productive, and so I write about it.
I am perplexed by your telling me about my side’s “hypocrisy and duplicity.” I would like concrete examples of these behaviors because I think I’m neither, and the people I vote for are neither, as far as I can tell, or I wouldn’t have voted for them. I am open to all facts.
I can see that I’m “not helping,” as you close your letter with. I understand that I am preaching to the choir. Or maybe just to myself. But, like you, I am exercising my right to free speech. And I do sign my name.
If you’d signed yours, maybe we could have talked. Also, other people could have read your letter and applauded you, dismissed you, laughed or yawned. As I assume people do with my column.
My 87-year-old friend Jeannette is a hardcore, Fox-News-watching Trumpr, and we discuss politics each time we’re together. She tells me she can’t stand Hillary or Pelosi and why. I tell her I can’t stand Trump or McConnell and why. And we move on to other subjects. I do not question her point of view, and if she questions mine, she keeps it to herself.
I would not mind being questioned by her any more than I mind being questioned by you. I do think it’s only fair to know who the questioner is, however, but if you’d simply like to continue writing anonymous letters to me, I will send you my address so we could continue in private a conversation that it seems we both might learn from.
