My recent opinion piece, A Time to Choose, drew more comments, both positive and negative, than all the other articles I have written in this newspaper over the past eight years put together. My goal in writing the piece was to alert you to the dangers of some of the candidates running in the upcoming Primary and to stimulate discussion.

 In the depths of the Civil War, as Confederate sympathizers undermined the Union war effort by encouraging soldiers to desert, Abraham Lincoln asked, “Must I shoot a simple soldier boy who deserts, while I must not touch the hair of the wily agitator who induces him to desert?” I could not help thinking of that quote as politicians piously proclaimed their commitment to fighting hate crimes while giving a free ride to those who incite antisemitism.