Too bad. Too bad Steve Collins, opinion writer for the Maine Trust for Local News, kicked Graham Platner to the side like a dirty scrap of humanity (“Graham Platner should take this opportunity to bow out,” Oct. 23). Too bad Collins doesn’t have the compassion born of empathy to embrace Platner’s capacity to own his mistakes, to apologize for them and to want to make himself a better man in response. He unfairly compares Platner to the racists and misogynists in the Republican Party.

Graham Platner is exactly who we should be running for Senate because he is a man who has seen the cruelty and small-mindedness of his old self and has publicly taken responsibility for that. He shows the way for people who hold those racist beliefs to see the light of kindness and interconnection and change. He can use his mistakes to talk to the other side, to listen to their stories. They can identify with him and say, oh maybe I too can change.

The Democratic Party has run out of steam and courage and wants to talk yadda yadda high and mighty to the people. Graham is a real person who makes real mistakes. Use this moment to embrace his changes and millions of people who identify with him will too.

Collins’ column sums up why the Democrats are losing. We have to stop looking down on people and embrace struggle, embrace care.

Kathleen Sullivan
Freeport