(Letter to the Editor - Graphic Illustration/MetroCreativeConnection)

On March 20, the News and Sentinel printed a letter-to-the-editor titled “Republicans must keep promises.” The writer of that letter continues to regurgitate every right-wing conspiracy theory currently making the rounds. He was kind enough to list his senseless garbage to make it easy to fact check. He starts with “Hunter Biden’s laptop,” the far-right mating cry of the unknowledgeable when they can’t come up with a decent truthful argument.

It only went downhill from there. Let’s take a few more: Speaker Pelosi did not block the National Guard from coming to the Capitol on Jan 6. The Speaker of the House does not control the National Guard. As the Capitol came under attack, she, and the Senate Majority leader both called for military assistance, including the National Guard. The facts, as they say, are stubborn things. In congressional testimony, Merrick Garland said that he considered parents voicing concerns at school board meetings to be protected under the First Amendment’s freedom of speech. He never labeled them “domestic terrorists.” I could go on and on, but the point is that there is not one coherent fact contained anywhere in his misguided and misinformed conspiracy laden-letter. We are all now dumber for having read it.

The above paragraph is what lifelong Parkersburg resident Ralph Chambers would have said but sadly he lost his three-year battle with cancer in January. His family would like to thank the editor of the News for letting our father participate in Democracy and for adding anticipation, creativity, and extra years to his life. Thanks to the people of Parkersburg and all those that enjoyed our father’s letters. He took great pleasure in questioning “alternative facts” and challenging the views of others. Some debates were purely for entertainment, and others … not so much.

Like his visceral disappointment that people keep electing a mooncalf like Mike Azinger, who you could read about as far away as Texas for his inane acts. Again, his family thanks you. To paraphrase Ted Kennedy: “He should be remembered as a good and decent man, he saw wrong and tried to right it, he saw ignorance and tried to teach it, he saw stupidity and tried to stop it.”

Mike Chambers

Murrells Inlet, S.C.