Editor, The Smithfield Times:

Mr. Dick Grice recently distributed a letter across town with concerns about four candidates running for Smithfield Town Council. Admittedly, I didn’t dive too deeply into his ramblings. Most of his trepidations related to the addresses of candidates (not issues they were addressing on the campaign trail), a nonsensical argument considering all six candidates probably live within a 10-mile (or less) radius of one another.

My biggest concern was Mr. Grice’s reference to the Citizens for Responsible Leadership candidates as “The Gang of Four.” In an instance of historical ignorance, a little history lesson for Mr. Grice: After ruling over Communist policies resulting in approximately 20 million deaths or more, Mao Zedong and three of his allies instituted the Cultural Revolution in China, a violent and chaotic suppression campaign, and became known as the “Gang of Four.”

To suggest that any candidate running for Smithfield Town Council is even remotely related to an evil Communist regime is quite slanderous. It is difficult to decipher whether Mr. Grice is ignorant of the historical reference he has made or if he is a basic, slanderous, political troll. Either way, it renders his endorsement irrelevant.

I also find it admirable that the CRL candidates did not respond to the irony that Mr. Grice and those he endorses go out of their way to accommodate a developer who made millions by selling out one of America’s major food sources to a Chinese entity backed by the Chinese Communist Party. 

I suppose I should be copying my boss on this letter as Mr. Grice has a habit of reaching out to oppositional constituents’ employers to silence them. I won’t point out the irony of others who did that, like during China’s Cultural Revolution, because I think comparing politicians to dictators is gross. 

Besides, I don’t think we are in danger of Mr. Grice becoming a dictator. One would at least need a compelling message, charisma and/or superior intellect, and he has none of those.

 

Angela Cusick

Smithfield