Letter: McKendall's 'Heroes' Are Disconcerting

Dear editor,  

'Tis the season for candidates to advertise their run for office, candidates both known and unknown.  One unknown, whose ubiquitous red signs have flooded the lawns of North Kingstown and Narragansett like weeds, is Republican Tina McKendall. 

Research reveals that McKendall is running for state senate and has a social media page where she disconcertingly says little about voter concerns and issues. She does alarmingly note that her personal heroes include two extremely controversial figures Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin and Florida Congressman Allen West.         

Walker caused an uproar when he undercut the rights of collective bargaining for most public workers in Wisconsin with his notorious "budget repair bill."  He repealed women's equal pay law and pushed for legislation allowing the refusal of birth control to women based on the pharmacist's own religious beliefs.  Walker is a self-proclaimed Evangelical Christian who supports that group's controversial causes. West has made outrageous public statements attacking women including his infamous lines "these Planned Parenthood women, the code pink women and all of these women that have been neutering American men and bringing us to the point of this incredible weakness [we need] to let them know that we are not going to let our men become subservient."  West has been referred to as the "rock star" of the Tea Party Caucus.  

McKendall's "heroes" fill in the blanks of her agenda. I urge voters to seriously consider what she is about.  McKendall and her support of anti-union and anti-female idols is better suited to the fictional town of Stepford, where the robots have no voice, rather than our towns where her ideals have no place.

Kenneth Sweeney

N. Kingstown, RI  02852