To the Editor,

This election cycle kickoff has once again turned to tokenism to grab people’s attention who don’t ordinarily search for facts or listen to history when voting, just mark their chosen party line and candidates whose personalities fit their image of leadership. The last two cycles jumped on catchphrase, Make America Great Again (MAGA), without the slightest indication of when we were great, what made us great, or what they planned to do to make us MAGA.

This cycle the acronym, WOKE and WOKEism, is taking center stage and why?  MAGA Republicans have jumped on the Anti-WOKE slogan seemingly to relate it to that awful term, SOCIALISM they have used for decades to defined themselves as hard working, self-sufficient, capitalistic heroes of the American dream as opposed to the lazy, government supported liberal Democrats. Dream on. Let’s take a harder look at WOKE as related to the development of our country.

WOKE means “Enlightened” which translates into being intelligent, empathetic, loyal, truly patriotic and many more virtues that have made us the land of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” formerly honored and respected around the world.

Take a look at past presidents and other leaders considered WOKE starting with Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, Martin Luther King, Jack Kennedy and Barack Obama.

Florida’s Governor DeSantis and the hard right MAGA Republicans have chosen the Anti-WOKE theme to help them win big in the next election cycle. Since they are against being WOKE, we must assume they like being the opposite…willingly ignorant with little regard for the health and well being of all residents, humans extending to our creatures who provide food and companionship for us.  

So sad we have come to believe in slogans over the remarkably well written constitution and the laws emanated from it. It has endured 247 years and counting. Over the past six years we have witnessed dangerous challenges to the very fabric holding our democracy together, the ultimate being the defensive attitudes toward one of the highest crimes against law and order, the January 6 insurrection attempt to reject the results of a presidential election.

Lee Purrier, 

Park Rapids