The Arizona Republic was flooded with death threats after taking the decision to endorse a Democrat for the first time in its 125-year history. The publication has decided to respond.
Last month, the Arizona Republic‘s editorial board like many historic American newspapers decided to weigh in the very heated presidential election. Almost every single paper endorsed Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump for a long list of reasons including the fact that he has little experience and knowledge of foreign affairs and has been dividing America with his rhetoric.
The publications seemed to agree that Clinton is both experienced and highly qualified for the job. Trump himself bashed some of the newspapers that failed to back him and asked his supporters to cancel their subscription and boycott the websites.
Some of the people, who are die-hard fans of the billionaire have taken things a step too far – they have started emailing, sending letters, and calling to make death threats to the Arizona Republic.
One person said they would bomb the publication, a second person called and said he will kill Mi-Ai Parrish, the president of the paper, and another threatened to burn the building down.
Parrish, who is also the president of Republic Media, wrote in a piece that has now gone viral that she was speechless and concerned by the emails she has received. In the op-ed, she spoke directly to people, who have been insulting her young employees as they try to earn money to pay for college. She wrote:
“To those of you who have spit on, threatened with violence, screamed at and bullied the young people going door-to-door selling subscriptions, I give you those dozens of young men and women themselves. Many sell subscriptions to work their way through school. Most were too frightened to share even their first names here. But they are still on the job. They know that free speech is part of a society that values hard work and equal opportunity.”
She had the following words for the people, who called and threatened the lives of numerous reporters. She explained:
“To the anonymous caller who invoked the name of Don Bolles — he’s the Republic reporter who was assassinated by a car bomb 40 years ago — and threatened that more of our reporters would be blown up because of the endorsement, I give you Kimberly. She is the young woman who answered the phone when you called. She sat in my office and calmly told three Phoenix police detectives what you had said. She told them that later, she walked to church and prayed for you. Prayed for patience, for forgiveness. Kimberly knows free speech requires compassion.”
She spoke directly to the readers, who claimed that the publication has become too liberal. In the piece, she said:
“To those of you who have said that someone who disagrees with you deserves to be punished, I give you Phil. Our editorial page editor is a lifelong Republican, a conservative and a patriot. He was an early voice of reason, arguing calmly that Donald Trump didn’t represent the values of the party he loves. Phil understands that free speech sometimes requires bravery.”
She also took on the people, who told her she was not a Christian, would go to hell, and should go back wherever she came from. She answered:
“To those of you who have said Jesus will judge me, that you hope I burn in hell, that non-Christians should be kept out of our country, I give you my pastor grandfather. He was imprisoned and tortured for being a Christian, and suffered the murder of his best friend for also refusing to deny Christ. He taught all that freedom of religion is a fragile and precious thing.”
Experts hope that the candidates will show more leadership in the upcoming weeks for things like that to stop.
