The Courage to Oppose... Alito

TO: Hon. Olympia Snowe, Senior Senator from Maine
Hon. Susan Collins, Junior Senator from Maine

RE: The Alito Nomination

You are presented with still another dilemma (assuming you still count yourself a moderate, and still believe in a woman's right to choose). What will you do, toe the line, or muster your courage?

In Leon Uris’ Mila 18, his novel about the Jewish inner circle in the Warsaw Ghetto, co-protagonist Paul Bronsky, after speaking out in the presence of brutal Nazi violence against a defenseless elderly colleague, finds himself paralyzed by fear. He longs for a way to preserve his erstwhile courage in a box, ready to be taken out and used, the next time the beatings begin. He ends up a collaborator.

Is that you, driven by fear into collaboration with what you oppose? If you vote for Alito, Roberts may stop him from overturning Roe v. Wade, but Roberts didn't make any promises about parental consent. You may find yourself returning home to a Maine in which teenage girls die rather than tell their parents. Is that what you want? Do you have the courage to oppose it?

Richard Wolfe
Cumberland, Maine