Opinion Piece By Samuel Strait – November 14, 2016 – It seems that in spite of the General Election having come to its glorious conclusion nearly a week ago we are still being inundated with a continual barrage of sour grapes expressed both on TV and in the print media.  One would think that adult citizens of the United States, at least those that are adult enough to vote, would have the maturity to understand that divisiveness is counter productive to any sort of growth in this country, or here, locally for that matter.  It would appear most in this County, have enough sense not to crow if victorious, or whine if not, that is except the Triplicate.

While it has been some time since I have expected anything but the classless sort of rhetoric that normally has graced the pages of the Triplicate with regard to the National elections, and local races as well, it came to my attention recently that our wonderful editor, Robin Fornoff, took the paper to a new and rarefied low by printing a letter to the editor titled “Search to relocate continues after disturbing election” (Triplicate, November 12, 2016).  Within the sentiments found in a letter written by the husband, Tom Delorey of Colorado, is the statement that he and his wife were considering buying a half million dollar house on Pebble Beach Drive only to change their minds when they discovered that Del Norte County voted “heavily” in favor of Donald Trump.  They concluded that on that basis they could not “force” themselves to live among us “heathens.”

Whew! dodged a bullet there.  I am not quite sure what prompted Editor Fornoff to publish  such an arrogant, elitist, and divisive letter, but it is most certainly not the sort of maturity that civilized people look for at the conclusion of a National election.  What has also become clear in the past week is that those that consider themselves the”elites” in this Country and could have only tolerated a Hillary Clinton presidency are among the hypocrites of the highest order.
After weeks of being told by the Media in general, of the dysfunctional supporters of Donald Trump and the mayhem that would ensue when he lost his bid for President, we are now faced with some rather ugly truths.  The fact that even our local Triplicate is complicit in displaying such ugly and nasty hypocrisy should be a wake up call to the adults that remain in this Country and our County as well.  Bigotry of this kind is not acceptable to be printed in our local paper and Editor Fornoff should be embarrassed. It should follow that he will disassociate the paper from this kind of hate speech and print an apology to the citizens of Del Norte County for his complete and utter lack of judgement.  While I fully expect that he will not be able to unchain himself from his partisan beliefs and regain some sense of civility, one can only wait and see.

I could not believe what was allowed to be printed.  It was a slap in the face of anyone who calls Del Norte County home.  The man who wrote the letter is a truly shallow individual and I for one am elated that he moved on.  We do not need such vile and bigoted  folk in our midst.