Guest Editorial: Avoid Political Labels -- Think for Yourself

By Dorothy Littrell

There is a very disturbing trend gathering steam in the political arena. This trend is to paint all individuals with a brush that tars and feathers them as "terrorists" or "not supporting the troops" if they disagree with government policies on the national level.

On the U. S. Supreme Court issues a person is labeled as liberal or conservative or pro-life or pro-abortion with no regard to the issues particular to a specific case.

This idea that " you're either with us" or "you're agin us" is very dangerous as it removes all personal thought and prerogative to present opposing viewpoints. The local trend to label all persons opposing Mayor Godfrey's political agenda as being part of Mitch Moyes' group shows the persons doing the labeling don't know what they are talking about.

There are several groups such as the petition gathering group, Citizens and Businesses Concerned for Ogden's Future. Chuck Eddy's organization, Citizen's Coalition, includes citizens from all over the state attempting to become informed to solve different problems such as West Haven's growing pile of refuse and the Weber County Sewer and Water Districts' failure to have taped meetings.

I personally did not have an organization when I took on the Wal-mart eminent domain fight. I fought Ogden City tooth and nail on that but that does not automatically make me part of the Citizens and Businesses Concerned for Ogden's Future. My sole issue was eminent domain seizure of private property for another private person or entity.

The Ogden Standard-Examiner has a tendency to label all persons with opposing viewpoints to theirs as obstructionist.

Let's bring back free speech on its own merits without a blanket label for everyone.

Dorothy Littrell

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Ms. Littrell is a local CPA, a prominent property-rights activist, and worked as a primary community organizer in the recent anti-eminent-domain fight.