I am a Christian and proud of it. I believe in capitalism. I pride myself on being a compassionate, caring person. I have raised tens of thousands of dollars for organizations devoted to helping underprivileged women and children. I had the honor of having an African American serve as the best man in my first wedding. My son is half Hispanic. I support the right to bear arms in a responsible manner. I enjoy great relationships with openly gay friends and family. I believe that everyone should be treated with dignity and respect and that all points of view should be heard. I truly care about my planet and do my part to recycle, conserve energy and be a responsible steward on the lands where I recreate. I believe that ALL lives matter and routinely share this in the articles I write and the talks I give. I am also a registered Republican.
As a Republican, I don’t appreciate being lumped into a group and routinely bashed on social media as an uncaring, greedy, insensitive, uninformed, capitalistic, environmentally irresponsible, racially insensitive, intolerant, immigrant hating, gun loving, homophobic, Islamophobic, unpatriotic loser because I CHOOSE to exercise my constitutional right to support someone other than Hillary Clinton for President of The United States. The last time I checked, we live in a DEMOCRACY, a DEMOCRACY made possible by all of those who have fought and in many cases given their lives defending the very flag that I routinely see being burned and spit on. I don’t agree with community organizers who lead chants of “who do we want, dead cops, when do we want them, now” and I don’t think its the least bit unreasonable to screen people who are entering our country, especially when “death to America” is a chant heard around the world.
You and I may disagree on who we would like to see in the White House next January, however, it doesn’t give us license to attack each other for participating in the DEMOCRATIC PROCESS. I encourage all of us to take a time out, count our blessings and focus on separating people from their positions. Together we are strong and our way of life will be preserved. Divided, we can easily fall prey to the forces who truly desire to end our way of life. I propose that we practice respectfully agreeing to disagree.
John Page Burton 