NORMAN — Editor, The Transcript:
As the election days approach, I had hoped that the local Republican Party would have done something to exhibit maturity, beginning with the departure of Bobby Cleveland. My last letter, criticizing the partisan involvement in city elections, produced a bipartisan flood of childishness, complete with finger-pointing and recriminations.
I am reminded of confrontations with classroom chatterboxes, who indignantly reply, “Why are you picking on me,” or, my personal favorite, “I wasn’t the only one.” While some partisan activity in City elections is both lawful and inevitable, I can only repeat the legal advice I have given to local politicos for years: Lots of things are legal that are not a good idea.
While I resist being cast in the role, I am convinced that sometimes Civilization requires its defenders, but fanatics do not. The modern educational concern for “critical thinking” cannot be reduced to an academic exercise.
Do local attorneys, especially judicial candidates, share the Republican Chairman’s apparent view that atheists support Darwin and evolution? Ask them. Teachers and lawyers should appreciate my final observation: I have been ignored by people much more important than Bobby Cleveland.
DEL BAUMAN
Norman
