Nov 2, 2022 2 min read

It is appalling that Paul Pelosi, husband of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Perlosi, was severely beaten in a break-in at his San Francisco home whose motive apparently was an effort to harm the Speaker, who was in the Washington, D.C., area at the time.

First, I am incredulous that there was not a security presence at the Pelosi home which would have thwarted such an assault, particularly given the number of people who have demonstrated that they would do harm to the Speaker, and given that there had been hostility directed at the family at the home previously.

Whether one is a Republican or a Democrat, they should not have to jeopardize their safety and risk their lives in order to serve in public office, yet we know that members of Congress, the judiciary, and their staffs face this on a daily basis.

Words and lies have consequences when stated by those who are in prominent positions. When election defeats are not accepted, when a popular musical artist engages in baseless anti-Semitism, when scapegoats are established, when immigrants and political opponents are dehumanized, and when violence is suggested against one’s ideological foes, there will be those who see the words as a call to action, a call to arms.

If our democratic system of governance and our country are to survive, honorable Americans must reject on no uncertain terms our becoming a country in which free speech and freedom of thought are violently punished. We must be a country which accepts the views of those whose ideology does not comport with ours.

The Speaker has held many of us in her prayers throughout her life. Tens of millions of good-hearted Americans now hold her and her husband in ours. I also pray that such an atrocity does not ever take place again.

Oren Spiegler

Peters Township