It didn’t take long to realize that Julie MacDonald-Smith’s columns were short on substance and long on trying to depict liberals as the enemies of all things American that conservatives wish for in a political opponent. But her Sept. 5 column (“Mutual Tolerance is not an option”) still managed to amaze me.

We know the meaning of mutual, we know there’s such a thing as an enemy that can’t be allowed to project their violence, and if we’re so aggrieved by religious intolerance in this country, why would we accept intolerance that leads to the slaughter and virtual enslavement of entire populations?

I’m not about to try and change the mind of Ms. MacDonald-Smith, but I would like to clear up a few other misrepresentations put forward in her earlier columns. Liberals do not believe government should restrict the choices parent make in raising their children, but we are opposed to undermining public schools by diverting funds to unproven and unaccountable charter schools. Liberals do not hate Gov. LePage, but we do feel that his ideologically driven ideas are backwards-looking, ineffective, and serving the state poorly in areas where they’re not harming it outright. Liberals do not believe in guaranteed equality of outcome, but we do believe that there’s been a steady erosion in equality of opportunity that government has a role in addressing.

That’s it for now, but I’ll gladly correct any future misrepresentations in The Right View.

Peter Mason
Brunswick