McDonalds' Vitriolic Hate

It seems every week I open the Letters section of the City Weekly, there's yet another rant by Stuart McDonald. Whether the issue is or isn't caused by the LDS Church, we can be sure McDonald's words are fueled by hate.

In last week's issue, he blamed Mormon Republicans obeying the LDS Church for not expanding Medicaid ["Medicaid Insanity," Letters, Aug. 27]. McDonald thinks the church is against expansion because it wants control as to who gets health benefits in Utah. McDonald then goes on to call church leaders "monsters."

This is ludicrous on several fronts: First, in thinking the church wants to control everyone's access to health care—which is funny, because the Republicans think President Obama is the one who wants control.

Second, when Gov. Gary Herbert, who is Mormon, announced his plan to expand Medicaid, the presiding bishop of the church was in attendance. A few days later, the Deseret News—which, as McDonald often says, is the "rag" of the LDS Church—came out in support of the governor's plan.

Third, maybe, just maybe, the Republican-controlled Legislature doesn't want to expand Medicaid for the same reasons 19 other Republican-controlled states—including Wisconsin, Florida, Wyoming, South Dakota and Texas—haven't expanded Medicaid.

The Legislature only listens to the LDS Church when it is convenient. The recent prison move shows politicians actually worship money and are lap dogs of lobbyists.

McDonald's vitriol only hurts, not helps. He is not attacking the real problem while at the same time, alienating people. Keep McDonald's hate and bigotry out of the City Weekly.

If I wanted to read this, I'd read the Tribune's comment section or Westboro Baptist Church's propaganda.

Bryan White

South Jordan

Monster-Mongering by McDonald

Regular readers of City Weekly and other local newspapers are no strangers to Stuart McDonald's open disdain for all things and people LDS. His latest rant, ["Medicaid Insanity," Aug. 27, Letters, City Weekly] comes as no particular surprise.

But his accusations of efforts on the part of LDS Church leaders to oppose Medicaid expansion under the ACA is simply ludicrous, blatantly false and slanderous.

McDonald further alleges the same church leaders are "monsters" whose purported refusal to support Medicaid expansion has apparently caused "suffering and death" to unnamed victims who otherwise would presumably have received Medicaid-covered services.

Freedom of speech is a wonderful thing. But as the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan said, "everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts." When accusations this serious are presented absent any corroborating facts, it serves no purpose other than perpetuating the all too common animosity between believer and non-believer and provides no positive contribution to rational public discourse. Controlling monsters that have caused suffering and death? Hardly.

These so-called monsters have established and provided humanitarian services around the world, including life-sustaining food and clean water, immunizations, maternal and newborn care, vision care, wheelchairs, disaster relief, emergency response, and much more. Millions of people in well over 100 countries have benefitted from these services. Those are facts, the accuracy of which is easily confirmed.

The free and open exchange of ideas and opinions is a welcome and necessary part of a democratic society, except when that discourse is also free of truth and facts.

Alan Hughes

Orem

Correction: Richard Mack was Sheriff in Graham County, Ariz. City Weekly's Aug. 27 news story "Armed Resistance" stated an incorrect county.