The Manitowoc Megaphone: Of Pens And Swords And Bullets And Bombs

"The pen is mightier than the sword."

Edward Bulwer-Lytton

Of course this does not begin to consider the use of pens (or keyboard) to incite the use of swords or guns or bombs for that matter.

On May 26th 2022 I submitted this letter to the Herald Time Reporter in Manitowoc. As yet it has not been published.

To the Editor:

When I spoke out against the bizarre allegations made by then school board candidate Tony Vlastelica against the Manitowoc Library System I was publicly smeared by him as an

“okgroomer” because in his mind if I didn't accept the his theory that the Library was distributing pornography to children then I must be a pedophile myself. The immediate consequence of that was that my wife began receiving threatening calls on her private mobile phone in the middle of the night from a person deputies quickly identified as a convicted violent drug dealer. Vlastelica was quick to deny having instructed the man to do this. Not directly anyway.

Now in Kiel there was an incident allegedly about “pronouns” only it does not take much imagination to realize that this more than a case of bad grammar. It was harassment the exact nature of which the school district cannot publicly discuss. Enter now the right wing politicians like State Rep. Sortwell and their stalking horse, the Wisconsin Institute of Law and Liberty selling their particular brand of fear and loathing. The district and the

board are now receiving death and bomb threats. Who gave those orders?

In two cities dozens of people are now dead. Adults and children shot to pieces because the same sort of manufactured outrage over “Replacement Theory” or this theory or that and the over arching theory that heavy weapons can cure what ails you.

So far we have not seen these slaughters up close and personal. These threats and intimidations are the echoes of more distant battles. But they are getting louder and closer. How long before our families are the ones weeping before the TV cameras? Words can be as deadly as bullets when spoken by immoral men. Reject them before the war comes home.