Letters to the Editor
Preconceptions
We would like to rebut some of the inaccuracies and prejudicial comments written in the March 2, 2017, letter to the editor by Ms. Nicole Mulloy regarding the meeting of the Geauga County Tea Party.
From the tone of her letter, we feel Ms. Mulloy came to this meeting with preconceived ideas of who and what the Geauga County Tea Party is about, and twisted what she saw and heard to fit those preconceptions.
Ms. Mulloy stated that a joke was made about a person at the airport being taken down. What she fails to relate is that the speaker, Mr. Claypool, was describing what he witnessed at the Mexican airport when an American citizen tried to enter Mexico without legal papers. This person was grabbed by officials and thrown to the ground, and the other passengers were made to step around him.
The crowd was laughing at the irony of how illegals are treated in the United States, not at the poor man manhandled by Mexican authorities.
Ms. Malloy also mentioned that she was pointed out to the police. There were no police to point her out to at the meeting; there were only park rangers whose job it is to be present at meetings held at West Woods.
When a person asked Judge Grendell about the legality of aiding an illegal immigrant, Ms. Mulloy turned it in someone wanting to send people to jail for “just knowing an illegal immigrant.”
Mr. Claypool never said our schools are disgusting, but he did wonder about what our children are being taught.
We find it interesting that Ms. Malloy’s took notes, but those notes failed to reveal the discussion of the poor woman in Concord Township, in Lake County, who was murdered by an illegal immigrant. This illegal was never turned over to ICE, and was set free by the sheriff in Lake County.
Ms. Mulloy talked about Christian values, and helping one another and not tearing others down, but she was the one making “value judgments” about the people at the meeting. What is Christian about calling the meetings bizarre and those who attended extremists?
Ms. Mulloy does not further her cause by these words. We are a country of immigrants, but we are also a country of laws. We cannot continue on the path of unabated illegal immigration, allowing sanctuary to those who break the law, and allowing refugees whose backgrounds and intentions cannot be verified.
The Geauga County Tea Party has always been an open forum for people to discuss their ideas, and a place to inform the public of issues affecting those in our county.
We do not deride those with opposing views; they are welcome to come and express them.
We have had candidate nights where both Democrats and Republican candidates were welcomed.
Ms. Mulloy was not silenced and she was welcome to voice her opinion. She chose not to voice it at the meeting, where a discussion could have taken place, but instead chose to voice her objections regarding the meeting of the Geauga County Tea Party in the paper.
I can only assume that her intention all along was not to air her views but to disparage the Tea Party.
Christie Hall
Newbury Township
Elsie Tarczy
South Russell Village
