To the Editor:
I am a wife, mother, and counselor at Bayonne High School. I have been blessed to be married to Mark Smith, and we have two beautiful and courageous daughters. I use the word courageous because, for the past three months, they have been subjected to an ongoing assault on their father by Mr. James Davis, his running mates, and his complicit supporters.
This past week campaign workers were in our neighborhood handing out another “so-called” newspaper. This one prominently featured a nearly naked “photograph” of Mark with a vagina superimposed on his crotch. This exercise in bad taste was further compounded when a campaign worker personally handed this to my daughters and me as we were leaving our home. When asked who paid him to hand this out, his response was “Jim Davis.”
As a mother, I will never find the words to describe the emotional assault my daughters and I experienced when we saw this picture. This “paper” is in your neighborhoods and in your mailboxes as well. Words cannot describe my reaction to this filth as a parent, as an educator, and as a citizen of our city. Is this really the direction we want our community to go in? What kind of people would produce such garbage in the hopes of being elected to public office? Why does Mr. Davis condone such action by distributing this filth at his fundraisers and from his campaign headquarters?
For the sake of our community, I beg the moms, dads, grandparents, religious leaders, and community groups to protect the beautiful children of our community from this disgusting pornographic material and those who would purvey it. Please stand up and denounce the smut and filth of these people. Let those associated with Mr. Davis, his candidates, and all of his supporters involved in the Davis campaign know how disgusted and offended you feel.
Most important, please consider carefully the character of those who would sink to such a low level to achieve elective office. Doesn’t basic human decency demand better from the Davis campaign? Doesn’t Jimmy Davis’s moral compass tell him that this “newspaper” is so terribly wrong? I think candidates should be defined as much by what they’ll do as by what they won’t do. Let Jimmy Davis and his running mates know if you put pornography first, then you have certainly placed our children last!
PATTY SMITH