Letter: Don’t vote for a return to ‘traditional values’

To the Editor:

The words “return to traditional values” invoke warm fuzzy feelings about the way things were. We remember “Leave it to Beaver” and “The Andy Griffith Show.” Do our memories also include the way things really were?

Before the 1970s, women couldn’t have a credit card in their own name or sign a mortgage without a man. In society, gay people were made to feel inferior and condemned; they couldn’t marry or have children. Jews and Muslims were judged and ostracized. Black people couldn’t buy homes in certain areas because of government redlining and couldn’t drink from the same fountains or eat at the same restaurants as whites. Religious organizations hid child abuse.

The phrase may be meant to elicit nostalgia, but the intent is dangerous. Politicians that use this phrase today to garner your vote want to return to a world where their religious beliefs are superior and legally binding, women can’t control their own bodies, and same-sex marriages are banned. In their world, false narratives, hate, exclusion, and corporate rule are the norm.

I, for one, do not want to return to the way things were in my childhood. I much prefer a world of acceptance, kindness, inclusion, protection of individuals’ rights, and the many other freedoms and opportunities we currently enjoy. Look past the window-dressed words. Vote for candidates that believe in a way of life better than the “traditional values” to which some would have us return.

Denise Burrs

Dixon