Oh, Mitt, how you lie.

States’ rights, huh? Well, if you’re a woman seeking lawful health-care coverage; an undocumented immigrant; an uninsured person; a senior without husband or family support; a single mother on welfare and looking for work; a downsized engineer or truck driver living in a homeless shelter, alone or with a family; an elder or a youth trying to vote without government-issued identification—in essence, Mitt, any human part of the 47 percent for which you can’t be responsible because “they” are not “responsible” for themselves—well, then, you’d better take care (if you can) about the state where you live.

Stay away, for example, from Arizona, Idaho, Iowa, Utah, Louisiana, Kansas, Indiana, Ohio, South Dakota or Mississippi, especially since if you or someone you love is raped, sexually abused or impregnated with a child for whom it will be impossible to provide adequate care, you’ve got trouble down the road. Romney says he will “get rid of” Planned Parenthood by stripping it of federal funding. Abortion and birth control may be out of reach for many in those states.

Oh, Mitt, what did those pundits mean when they said you won the Oct. 3 debate with President Obama? What I heard from you, Mitt, were your plans for erasing civil rights for many Americans. In our current social, economic and political climate, states will never be able to provide equal rights under the law. When you did not address enormous differences among states’ rights in your “winning” debate, you revealed more of the fatal character deficiencies we have come repeatedly to associate with you. And in that, you lost.

STEPHANIE PACE
Salt Lake City