Eric Crafton Responds Again!!

While I was busy composing and sending out the response below, Eric found he had one more thing to say to my original email. Understand that. He fired off the first one, and then fired off the second one before I even had a chance to respond. Here it is:

From: Eric Crafton [mailto:craftonfamily@comcast.net]
Sent: Monday, December 26, 2005 12:21 PM
To: Joseph
Subject: RE: Christmas - From Your Constituent

By the way, don't ever question my motives again. That's between me and the Lord. "judge not lest ye be judged." If you had any courage at all, you would stand up for your "so called" beliefs as well. Merry Christmas and Happy new year.

Still sending those from his family address, I see.

Well, I went out shopping, so I didn't get to see this until I got home. And sadly for Mr. Crafton, I had a chance to think about what I could have said. So when I got home, and found that little jewel in my inbox, well, I cut loose.

How you talk to your employer! I am correct about that, yes? You are the public servant and I am the taxpaying member of your constituency? Yes? I don’t know where you learned to address your boss like that, but you need a quick lesson in humility.

Which I am here to provide. In case you aren’t familiar with being an elected official, judging your motives is my primary right. I look at you and I decide whether or not you are in this for your own gain or for the gain of us, your electors. If I decide against you, then I get to talk about it all the live long day, in every venue I see fit. If this is something you’re not willing to put up with, then I suggest you not run for public office ever again. Try to intimidate me out of my First Amendment rights again, sir, and you will be sorry.

Now. How is it that I judge your motives, Mr. Crafton? What evidence do I have? Your actions. And right now, your actions are severely wanting. First of all, you tie into this War on Christmas nonsense. In this, you are guilty by association with the likes of Bill O’Reilly and John Gibson, panderers and hypocrites to the man. The company you keep, sir, is poor.

This is why I wrote you in the first place. It can’t be, said I to myself, that I voted – that I actually voted – for someone silly enough to fall for an obvious ploy for money. Gibson has his book to hawk, and both O’Reilly and Gibson have a news channel to promote. You are familiar with November sweeps? What better way for a news channel to boost their ratings than begin shilling for a wedge issue that appeals to their base, and antagonizes their political opponents? The War on Christmas is nothing but a cynical ploy for ratings and cash, and you have brought the ill will and tension that it engenders to Nashville.

And I voted for you!

So I wrote you, explaining a few facts, hoping that you and I could speak reasonably about this. The very first thing you do is switch email addresses on me. Instead of the governmental email address that I use, you answer me from a family email address, as if I took this discussion into your home. How saddening it is to see you play the victim here – because that means, far from falling for the cynical words of evil men, you do mean to play this to your political advantage, and that may be your only motive.

Furthermore, I asked you to provide some evidence in that first email. You declined to provide any Scriptural motivation for your actions, seeing that the celebration of Christmas isn’t contained in Scripture anywhere. So your proposition before the Metro Council, having no Christian well to spring from, again returns to the banal ones of a political operative manipulating the people for some cheap publicity.

So, sir, what evidence - what fruit from the tree of your heart – do I have, as a person who helped put you into office, to fully judge you? Only your actions in this matter, and from this angle, Mr. Crafton, you have been found severely wanting.

Happy Holidays,

Joseph

PS: Whatever could you mean about my lacking courage to stand up for my beliefs?

Whatever could he mean? He's not asking me to get in his face physically about this, is he? He's not challenging me to a fight?

Nah. He'll explain himself, if he writes back.

And yes, as I considered it, I'm fairly certain I voted for the man. Nashville Metro elections don't have a Democrat-Republican designation. I can't find anywhere online that gives him a certain designation as a Republican, but I did find a few references to his doing the bidding of the local Republican party, and this War on Christmas stand clinches it.

"Don't ever question my motives again..." - the very idea! The nerve of this guy!