Regarding the letter titled “Military Objective,” I too have been inside nuclear launch facilities — at Hill Air Force Base near Salt Lake City. My father, a decorated marine sergeant during the Korean War, worked for Boeing on the B-58 bomber and for Sylvania on the Minuteman project. On a cross-country trip, we stopped to visit one of his friends, a colonel at Hill. He took us on a tour that included going down a “lit” silo with a missile, ready to go at a moment’s notice — to strike Russia. We also toured an underground missile assembly area the size of several football fields.

My father and mother were Republicans who volunteered for Ronald Reagan during his runs for governor and also voted for him and Richard Nixon for president. My father instilled in his four children the ethics of hard work — my childhood jobs included a paper route and apricot-picking, and working on a trash truck and landscaping. My father put himself through college on the GI Bill at night, after working 50-plus hours. We live in a country he fought for, with a Constitution allowing free speech and freedom of expression. That includes choosing who to vote for in elections.

I have voted Republican my whole life because I am a realist. I believe in conservative values, but I respect other people’s points of view. The fact that the writer chose not to vote for President Trump is his prerogative. The fact that he is unhappy at being out-voted does not afford him the right to label Republicans unpatriotic because his candidate lost.

I believe it is unpatriotic to not appreciate that millions of other Americans do not share your political opinion. Trump won because most Americans are fed up with the political establishment who only enrich themselves at taxpayer expense.

Democrats will have another chance in 2020 to elect the candidate of their choice.

Login

Please note this login is to submit events or press releases. Use this page here to login for your Independent subscription

Not a member? Sign up here.