It’s my community too

This is a difficult letter to write because it is in response to an example of virulence the transmitter of which not only has no self-awareness but considers himself one of the “good guys” and, indeed, may in some ways be. But he exposes his covert character with a series of loaded words and ideas (“Be a part of this community,” Christopher Vogel, Sep. 22).

First of all, notice the use of the word “this” in the title of his letter. As we shall see, by “this” he means “my.” He refers to newcomers here as a “migration” of “refugees,” words loaded with implication of disadvantaged unfortunates fleeing under duress or distress from coastal areas as they “spiral deeper into chaos”,, evidently a slur on recent civil rights protest demonstrations, just as his “learn to roll your eyes while reading the S-R and particularly Shawn Vestal,” who “desperately wants Spokane to be just like Seattle,” is a snide dismissive admonition.

He then pronounces the prime values of our community which any supplicant “refugee” needs to adopt: hunting, specialty cars and local sports, while remembering to suppress “the garbage that you escaped.”

Well, this is not just your community, Mr. Vogel, and you had better hope that I do not become one of your neighbors because you may not like the signs I post in my yard, the way I garden, my negative feelings about guns, my preference for classical music over football and many other things. But this is my town too.

Peter Grossman

Spokane