HYPOCRISY: Live and in person

In my 28 years of living in Coeur d’Alene I attended my first town hall meeting on March 17 sponsored by three Republican state legislators. I spoke up for making cruelty to animals a felony in this backward state of Idaho (one of only three states in the USA where it is not a felony); and I spoke up against the ultrasound bill.

With the exception of the animal activists in attendance I was disappointed by the appearance of most of the attendees. Some scrubby and unkempt, one openly displaying a firearm on his belt, certainly no member of the business and educated elite that one would normally expect at a Republican function seemed to be present.

How Rep. Barbieri and Sen. Vick could share the podium so nonchalantly with a tax cheater and timber thief was beyond my comprehension.

In our opinion, by being a co-sponsor of SB1387, Barbieri was not representing the majority of his constituency but his own personal beliefs. We see no problem if he lives by his personal beliefs, as long as he does not force them unto others.

It was mentioned in the media that “this bill made no exception for victims of rape or incest.” Also, and I am quoting exactly: Barbieri, who is chairman of the board of a crisis pregnancy center in Coeur d’Alene, said that didn’t concern him. “My perspective is that it’s a life,” he said. “It doesn’t matter to me how the baby was conceived.”

This is outrageous. I suspect that Barbieri would probably change his tune if a member of his family was the victim.

How can he sponsor as a Republican and by definition an opponent to government regulations such an intrusion into the private lives of others. This is utter hypocrisy.

Come the next election we will certainly bring this subject up with our acquaintances.

JUERGEN NOLTHENIUS

Coeur d’Alene