I read Mary Salas’ letter “Enough Already” (9/29), and had lots of thoughts of agreement. I hate it when politicians do things that seem unusual in order to do what appears to be pandering to particular interest groups.
First, this letter in no way expresses opinions on which candidate should be elected to City Attorney. I’ve not made up my mind yet. This letter addresses a much broader issue.
While I was quite displeased to see Dan Smith add his mother’s maiden name to his own and was equally displeased when Larry Breitfelder added Nava to his last name a decade ago, I have to say I understand why they do it and the reason is unfortunate, in my opinion.
Sadly, there is far too much identity politics today rather than people researching the candidates and choosing the one that would best represent the community as a whole. There is also far too much self interest, rather than community benefit in our voting.
To the extent an interest group wants to know how a candidate stands, they should research and ask the candidates their positions on issues important to them. Without doing so, if interest groups vote based on perceived ethnicity, identity, etc., they may miss voting for the best possible candidate with whom they may most closely align on issues important to them or who would most benefit the community—a candidate who otherwise doesn’t appear to be part of their interest group.
Whether it’s sexual identity, racial identity, political issue identity, etc., we need to ignore that and look closely at the candidate and their stand on the issues.
Some of the best words ever spoken in history admonished us to judge people on the content of their character, rather than on the color of their skin, or, if I may, their sexual identity, religion, or …. That’s the way we need to relate to others and to decide for whom to vote—not based on last name, color, religion, sexual identity, race, etc. People who we wouldn’t think know us or care about us may actually represent and benefit us better than those that appear that they would.
I’ve voted for people that didn’t look like me, didn’t share a similar heritage, weren’t in my “party”, etc., depending on who I thought was best for the position and would best represent its constituents.
As you prepare to vote in this election, please do your research on the candidates, ask them questions, read what’s written about them, etc., and vote based on this and whatever else you can find that reveals the content of their character, rather than on their last name, their color, religion, race, sexual identity, etc.
Bryan Felber resides in Chula Vista.
