Death of a conservative

I always read all the obituaries in our two local newspapers because I'm fascinated by people's life stories, especially in this area -- and by how those stories are reported by the families. But until this week I didn't know any of the people who had died. We're too new here, we don't know anybody.

This week, to our surprise, we saw a familiar name in the obituaries: Belva M. No, I can't say we really knew her, but we felt like we did because she was an inveterate letter writer. Letters to the Editor, that is. The woman wrote the most unbelievably right-wing nutter letters, worse than anyone. Rocket Boy and I read them with our mouths open. Her letters were works of art. I wish I'd saved them. I didn't realize she was about to die. I googled her just now and could only find a few of her letters online. The last was from October. I had just been thinking it had been a while since the last Belva letter and now there will be no more. Here's one I particularly enjoyed:

Our forefathers did not want any one religion (actually Christian denomination) to become the State Religion.
I promise you that they were not considering the possibility of any other religion being a challenge.
We were Christians or Jews, not Muslims or Buddhists or whatever.
As the great-grandparent of public school children, I’m reminded that having master teachers is not enough.
What are the teachers allowed to teach? Pick-pocketing?
Now the precious students are being taught to worship the president. How sad!
I, for one, would like to help Pres. Obama out...but impeachment isn’t easy.
He is leading our children too far to the left...they will all be “left” behind. Do what’s right!
We must get God back in the schools!! Or our children out of government schools. God help us!!!
Do Pray!!!

She particularly hated President Obama and often wrote about him. (Once, in an amusing exchange, an apparent friend of hers wrote in to the newspaper to complain about one of her letters, saying "Belva, show some respect, he is our president!") She also liked to reminisce about her teaching experiences. She was a big fan of corporal punishment and prayer in the schools. I'd love to meet someone in Ridgecrest who had her for a teacher way back when.

Reading her obituary, I was struck by what a nice person she appeared to have been. The photograph accompanying the story made her look so friendly and kind. She had a BA in English and a teaching credential, was married with children, children-in-the-Lord (whatever they are), grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. And of course: "Belva loved God with all her heart."

What is it about loving God that makes people into such crazy bigots? It should do the opposite. I will never understand.

Goodbye Belva, we will miss you.