Madsen got it all wrong

(Sue Lani) Madsen’s (Nov. 20) column using the mock device of being addressed to “Dear Deep Blue Seattle”is a disgrace.

First off, it gets the facts wrong, either intentionally or maliciously. While purporting to address the question raised in a Seattle Times editorial, “What are we going to do about the other half of the country that does not see the world the way we do?”, she attacks the editorial for reiterating anti-Trumpers’ support of “condoning homophobia, racism and xenophobia” and labeling of them “backward-thinking people.” Any reading of the column in question reveals the opposite. The Seattle paper’s columnist answers her own question by saying, “Are we going to wish them away, or curse them or berate them into acquiescence? Have any of those strategies worked in the past?” and “ Those of us with privilege stemming from race, class, education or perceived proximity to whiteness have a greater responsibility to do the hard, uncomfortable work of finding a way to connect with those on the other side of the political divide… It requires us to resist the temptation to unfriend, to mock and drag and to say we will never associate ourselves with those backward thinking people again.”

The whole tone of Madsen’s dismissal of the clearly earnest and sincerely healing intent of the Seattle editorial is snide, petty and supercilious. Preaching to the “Blues,” Madsen writes, “Rednecks like us value being able to tell and take a joke…”. Well, the joke is on her.

Peter Grossman

Spokane