All parties, people must practice respect

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, November 9, 2016

As I write this letter, it is 8 a.m. Tuesday. Election results aren’t final yet, so I thought it might be a good idea for us all to think about what kind of a country we want to live in and leave for our kids. Are our differences going to get to the point where we take up arms to get our way, as some have hinted? Are we going to continue to sink to the level of so many Third World countries whose citizens and governments jail or even kill those who think differently, or look different?

Sadly, it seems there are those who live in our country who believe that is what they will be “forced” to do if things don’t turn out the way they want them to turn out. This is not what our founding fathers envisioned when they drew up our Constitution. Too many folks, who profess to be patriots, ignore or distort these founding documents, preferring to interpret them to fit their own thinking.

Guns are a perfect example. The Second Amendment is widely voiced as the right for anyone to own and use as the gun owner sees fit. Any concern, voiced by any citizen, for the 33,000 gun deaths a year in this country, is immediately branded by some as trying to “take their guns away.”

This cannot continue. If we are to survive and maintain our place on this planet as the beacon of hope for this planet’s inhabitants, we have to learn how to talk to others of us who think and look differently. It doesn’t mean that all others have to change, it means that many of us need to make our own changes. Republicans, Democrats and independents need to finally come to the conclusion that their are other constructive viewpoints and that we are not always right. “More than one way to skin a cat” in other words. It is that simple.

Don Curtis

Stanwood