Parade marchers misrepresent women at Fourth parade

The Bonner County Republican Women, Inc., is a nonprofit organization that aspires to educate and advocate for American traditional, conservative values.

Accordingly, we wish to express to our colleagues in the Sandpoint, Democratic Party, and related organizations (via this open letter), our acute distress and dismay concerning a recent incident.

We were stunned and aghast at the bad taste demonstrated during the Fourth of July parade, where a substantial contingent of Democratic women appeared as characters from the book/TV series — “The Handmaid’s Tale,” replete with white bonnets and long red dresses which identify the book’s protagonists.

Here is a Google description of the book/TV series ... “a novel by Margaret Atwood, this is set in Gilead, a totalitarian society in what used to be part of the United States. Gilead is ruled by a fundamentalist regime that treats women as property of the state and is faced with environmental disasters and a plummeting birth rate. In a desperate attempt to repopulate a devastated world, the few remaining fertile women are forced into sexual servitude."

This demonstration was obviously intended as a protest against restrictions on abortion and pro-life laws. There are appropriate ways to advocate and protest, but this wildly missed the mark! It combined grotesque caricature, hyperbolic overstatement, and lurid implications that anyone who questions abortion is part of a satanic, totalitarian cult.

Most egregious was the fact that this demonstration occurred during the Fourth of July parade. 

The Fourth of July is supposed to be a joyous, happy celebration of national unity and community cohesion; it is intended to express our common sense of purpose, an appreciation of past accomplishments and future challenges, and especially our goodwill and amity for each other as fellow citizens. Above all, it is designed to be an affirmation that, despite our political differences, we are still — and most importantly — neighbors and friends and colleagues.

On behalf of our organization, and also the members of the Sandpoint community, we respectfully request that you desist from such inflammatory demonstrations in the future, particularly during national holidays whose purpose is to unite, not divide us.

VICTORIA QUINN

DIANNE HOUTS

ANITA AURIT

THEA FEW

SANDRA RUTHERFORD

DEBBIE KEELEY

JAIME SCHMUNK

JENNIFER COX

Sandpoint

Bonner County Republican Women, Inc.

Board members