Politicized

The following was read Tuesday in response to Eber Phelps saying the tea party was capitalizing on the 9/11 tragedy:

Today is Sept. 11, 2012 -- 11 years after the attack on America. We remember and we pray for all the 9/11 victims and their families. In fact, we have two special prayer meetings every month to pray for our country, our leaders and our military members.

Today is also Patriots Day. Our Founding Fathers would be proud of what we in the tea party and the tea party movement are doing to help restore our constitutional principles. Today, we exercise the most sacred right of all Americans. We engage in the democratic process of vetting candidates for political office. We, the people, need to select candidates who will represent us and our Constitution and not the candidates who have their own agenda of changing the most sacred document in history.

The tea party monthly meetings are on the second Tuesday of each month.

Eber Phelps had no intention of coming to the candidate forum because after 16 years as a state representative his liberal voting record would be exposed. Now that there is a local tea party, he would be vetted for the first time in all of his years as a politician. For example, in 2011, Eber Phelps voting record on the important financial issues was a very low 25 percent conservative.

So Eber Phelps plays politics with the fact that we are having a candidate forum today. In The Hays Daily News, he says, and I quote, "He won't be going to a political event that is intended to capitalize on tragedy." Mr. Phelps believes because we are having an event to vet the candidates we are capitalizing. Mr. Phelps, the politician, are you trying to capitalize on tragedy?

For the record, Mr Phelps did not attend the primary candidate forum.

Roger Ewing

Hays