In her Aug. 28 “My Turn” piece, Fran Wendelboe anointed herself a disciple of Martin Luther King, quoting from his 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech.
According to her, Democrats have now forgotten King’s dream, that children “will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” She went on to claim that Republicans are the party that judges people by their character, whereas Democrats judge people by their skin color.
Wendelboe’s hypocrisy is breathtaking. In 1999, New Hampshire was the only state that did not recognize Martin Luther King Day as a state holiday. Wendelboe was then a Republican member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives. On May 25, 1999, the House voted 212 to 148 to recognize MLK Day as a state holiday. Wendelboe voted “no,” joining 143 of her GOP colleagues. Sixty-nine Republicans voted with the strong Democratic majority to pass the bill.
Even if a sham, Wendelboe’s recent public endorsement of Dr. King is a welcome departure from the open embrace of white nationalism by the current national administration. Still, in view of her own voting history and the positions currently taken by her party at all levels, her use of Dr. King’s words to praise a bigoted and hate-filled GOP is nothing short of outrageous. It has been a long time since the Republican Party was the party of Lincoln.
RUTH LARSON
Alton