Reading gubernatorial hopeful Robert B. Charles’ Aug. 10 op-ed (“Cancellation by defamation will not work in Maine“), attempting to rebut an earlier column (“Maine gubernatorial candidate spreads hate on campaign trail,” July 31), I found myself looking for some insight into Mr. Charles’ true beliefs. His true motivation.

One part of the op-ed looked like Mr. Charles is inexplicably associating U.S. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar with the 1993 “Black Hawk Down” incident. I’m sure Rep. Omar would be surprised to hear this since she was 11 years old at the time, and neither Rep. Omar nor Maine State Rep. Deqa Dhalac were actually living in Somalia in 1993, both having fled the vicious civil war as refugees abroad. I’m guessing Mr. Charles knows this association is incoherent, bordering on laughable, but he’s simply pandering to his excitable base.

It seems that Mr. Charles’ problem seems to be exclusively with Somali-American politicians who continue to feel kinship to their homeland. No one else is being told to shut up and go away. Mr. Charles doesn’t mention Irish and Italian-American politicians proudly leading St. Patrick’s Day and Columbus Day parades, Jewish-American politicians wearing yellow ribbon pins to bring attention to Israeli hostages in Gaza, or Cuban-American politicians bringing attention to human rights abuses in their ancestral home. The list could go on and on.

I thank Mr. Charles for reminding us that he’s a scholar, jurist, hero, philosopher, humanitarian and an all-around great guy. I also thank him for the rest of his op-ed, where we get to see, as Paul Harvey would say, “the rest of the story.”

Jeremy Smith
Old Orchard Beach