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Wants Bulletin to drop Buchanan
masthead mb

Editor, Manteca Bulletin,

I appreciated the Bulletin’s July 5 coverage of the July 4th parade. As stated by Dennis Wyatt: “It wasn’t just Manteca on parade. It was America on parade.” 

Wyatt’s observation that: “Perhaps that explains why those watching the parade — as well as those in it — seemed to be looking in a mirror. Others may see ethnicity, gender, and other differences but what was reflected back on Wednesday with every glance was the sight of fellow Manteca residents and fellow Americans.” is a reaffirmation of the core values of the Declaration of Independence to me.

As stated by President Lincoln: “(I)f you have been taught doctrines in conflict with the great landmarks of the Declaration of Independence, … (such as) that none but rich men, or none but white men, were entitled to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, … look up again to the Declaration of Independence and take courage to renew the battle … to set up a standard maxim for free society which should be familiar to all: constantly looked to, constantly labored for, and even, though never perfectly attained, constantly approximated, and thereby constantly spreading and deepening its influence and augmenting the happiness and value of life to all people, of all colors, everywhere.” (1857, 1858)

In this context, I would like to again urge the Bulletin to not publish Pat Buchanan. His columns are too often examples of Lincoln’s caution about a “doctrine in conflict” with the Declaration of Independence. For example:

Our culture is superior because our religion is Christianity and that is the truth that makes (us) free. (11/09/1996)

The religious, ethnic, and racial composition of the country, a child of Europe, is changing … rapidly … The melting pot no longer works its magic. … (8/12/2004)

California is going home to Mexico. … With 100,000 whites leaving California each year, the Asian population soaring 42% in a decade, and 43% of all Californians under 18 Hispanic, California is becoming--indeed, has become--a Third World state. (10/2/2007)

America has been the best country on earth for black folks. … brought from Africa in slave ships, … (they) were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known. (3/21/2008

Hitler had never wanted war with Poland … Hitler wanted to end the war in 1940, almost two years before the trains began to roll to the camps. (9/1/2009)

And when we have ceased to be an English-speaking, Christian country and become instead an Asian-Hispanic-African-American-white nation, with large Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, agnostic and atheist minorities, and no defined borders, or common faith and culture, what holds us together? (7/18,/2014)

“All … are created equal” is an ideological statement. Where is the scientific or historic proof for it? Are we building our utopia on a sand pile of ideology and hope? (8/15/2017)

President Trump assessment was correct when he was considering challenging Buchanan in the 2000 presidential campaign: “I believe it’s time to stop patting Pat on the head and dismissing him as a good-hearted eccentric. It’s time to start taking this man seriously as a threat.” (Donald Trump, 11/5/1999)

As an alternative to Buchanan’s threat I would like to see more local opinion in the Bulletin. Interviews with local political leaders like the one recently done by Jeff Tilton are good examples. Perhaps religious, education and other leaders could provide content. I am sure that they all do plenty of writing in their daily service that would be beneficial to our local conversations. The youth Wyatt referenced in his coverage certainly have lots of opinions to contribute if asked.

Alberto Ibargüen, former publisher of the Miami Herald, recently reflected on the need for local content in the context of the reporters murdered at the Capital Gazette: “In providing the public with accessible insights into the arguments at the core of our republic, the (Founders) formalized the role of the press as the staging ground for the middle, a written and spoken battlefield where wars of words are waged until common ground is reached. … This tendency toward the middle, toward principled compromise based on common interests and promoted by a local press, is the genius of American democracy. … Traditional American news reports of the kind The Gazette produces daily provides a shared basis of fact on which to debate decisions; the foundation for democratic decision-making. That’s worth preserving — no matter the platform — because it’s exactly the place where we can start rebuilding the trust that has crumbled on the national scene. They are where people in towns with different views can feel part of the same community, not just the same tribe.

Buchanan’s columns are too often focused on: “the eternal appeal of tribalism, America’s model of the ideal society — the more diverse that it is religiously, ethnically, culturally and racially, the better it is — would appear to be more than a mildly risky experiment. (4/8/2011)

The Bulletin does not need Buchanan’s arguments which diverge from our values, lack compromise and rely on alternative facts. In addition, they are easily available on the Internet. I would prefer our local paper focus on our community’s opinions and examples from our local successful experiments of being “America on Parade”.

Sincerely,


Léo Bennett-Cauchon

Manteca