Perhaps I should express my appreciation to Stephan Brigidi for pointing out to the citizens group in his Aug. 27 letter where they should be focusing their energies and interest and where they shouldn’t — not really. He suggests we should limit ourselves only to local issues over which Bristol’s elected officials are able to exert influence, as if there is no potential for harm there, and leave alone issues of national interest and federal decisions involving rights which he asserts have already been “carved out of our Constitution.” 

Our group’s mission statement is no secret. Anyone can see it who would like to know what the Bristol County Concerned Citizens (BCCC) group is about. We are simply concerned about preserving, protecting and promoting traditional American and local Bristol family values.

Those principles and values extend beyond zoning, budgets, flag-raisings, etc. and include national matters that definitely impact us locally, i.e., sanctity of life, traditional family, voter ID, immigration, school choice, discipline and accountability, gun control, etc. Therein lies the essence of why we all should be concerned about the character and agenda of folks we elect to local public office. Remember Laufton Ascencao.

The group shares a common concern that these values are at risk. And the source of that risk is the socialist agenda pushed progressive Democrats. No one has claimed that our Democrat town committee has been taken over by a national progressive agenda.

But a national progressive agenda is indeed real, and I do believe the traditional liberal Democrat party has been co-opted by the far left progressive agenda. And I wonder if any of our local and state “Democrat” candidates  subscribe to the 2017 Progressive Values Pledge – a copy of which is readily available on the internet.

Whether citizens should abandon their concerns about issues already decided by legislatures and courts as efforts in futility, I simply disagree. Legislators and judges are not the source of our unalienable rights that Jefferson proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence as being endowed by our Creator. Nor are they always correct in deciding what other rights are properly founded in our Constitution. Too often they are wrong. Laws can be repealed. Court decisions can be reversed.

Laws, unlike rights, are man-made and therefore imperfect. It is the civil law. There is also the moral law. Morality cannot be legislated, but it can be perverted by legislation. Man has proven himself perfectly capable perverting morality while in the process of enacting civil laws we are all expected, indeed required, to accept and obey, and that potential is the essence of the citizens group’s concerns.

We really need look no further than the chaos taking place in major cities to understand the importance of choosing to elect the right candidates to serve us in elected offices. I believe it is accurate to say that the elected officials in these cities and states are of a progressive persuasion. That is not what I want for Bristol, our state or our country.

Pete Hewett
Bristol