Stacy Korsgaden was at the insurrection 

I just watched chilling new LA Times footage of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and am reminded that we have a candidate running for SLO County District 3 supervisor who participated in it. Maybe Stacy Korsgaden didn't wield a spear or a Confederate flag to violently break into the U.S. Capitol but she did answer the call to stand with those who hoped to overthrow a democratically elected president and illegally reinstate an oligarchical thug.

Though she downplays it in a 2021 CalCoastNews op-ed as merely personal choice, as concern over voting fraud "regardless, as a private citizen, I didn't feel my attendance was news." It became "news" because she had run for office and decided again to run for office. And though she condemns the violence, the fact that she joined a crowd made up of neo-Nazis, Klansmen, "boogaloo bois," Q-anon anti-vaxx conspiracy theorists, and myriad others—who would gladly take away her right to marry another woman, who believe their white skin and maleness gives them egregious entitlement over women's bodies, over the planet, over everyone whose skin is not white, who pledge allegiance to a murderous, capitalist patriarchy—begs a few questions: Does she pledge allegiance to anti-democratic ideals or is she just incredibly, dangerously naive?

Something encouraged Stacy Korsgaden to fly five hours to Washington, D.C., during a pandemic to contest a fair election. And though protest "by the people, for the people" is the lifeblood of a democracy, it stops being a healthy protest when it becomes an insurrection, when it becomes a violent attempt to overthrow the government, when it becomes a murder scene. (Five people died on Jan. 6, 2021, and four have committed suicide since the insurrection.)

As the District 3 supervisor race heats up, let us consider what is reasonable. Can someone who stands with those who would take power by force be a reasonable choice to serve the public?

Dian Sousa

Los Osos