Longing for a common understanding

In response to “A letter I should not need to write” Aug. 28: I have to admit, when I read the first paragraph, I thought to myself, as a flaming liberal, “Oh good, someone who agrees with me.” Here’s how that letter began: “My country is under attack. I cannot remain silent any longer. The words and actions of some of my fellow Americans are viciously tearing at the fabric of this Republic. Every day I hear, see, and read about the hatred, unfounded accusations, venomous attitudes, unfounded blame and distortions from citizens, including even some from Congress.”

Then as I proceeded to the second paragraph, lo and behold, it turns out that the writer is on the OTHER side. Rather than a fellow citizen concerned with the tyrannical and oppressive forces within our country that are endangering our freedoms, the writer is enthralled with our current leadership – the “true Leader of Freedom,” and we in the opposition have gone mad. Wow! Are she and I in any way living in the same “reality?” Are we so encapsulated in our echo chambers?

While other writers in the subsequent issue of the Weekly News have nicely countered the claims made in “A citizen’s view” with rebuttals to her comments on racism and hatred, I would like to assure her and all who share her viewpoints that we are not really the hateful monsters portrayed in that letter.

To clarify a few misconceptions: We are not determined to have open borders .

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we want just borders.

We don’t want gun control that only hurts law-abiding citizens, we want sensible gun regulation that saves more innocent (yes, law-abiding) lives.

We don’t want free everything .

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there is no such thing, there is a price for everything; we simply want our tax money to support the common good and not just the wealthy.

As for the contention that socialism has never succeeded; in fact, the social democratic Scandinavian countries are just some examples of countries today that are successful in just about every way. We’d like affordable healthcare and college education for all in our country, too.

She derides sanctuary cities, which are merely our way of showing our fellow humans the humanitarian values of our founding fathers: justice, freedom from persecution, peace and love. She complains about extreme climate change programs, when what is actually extreme is the intensity and frequency of weather events, due to our warming planet, and the climate crisis that is a threat to mankind. We want a safe, healthy environment to pass on to our children and grandchildren.

She worries about cutbacks in U.S. military programs (which spend more than those of the next 8 countries combined), while we cope with being the most expensive country for healthcare at $8,745 per capita, with over 15% of our fellow citizens without health insurance. What’s the point of a defense system if it costs the lives of citizens? Neither of these (healthcare cost and accessibility) are issues in social democracies which, by the way, have high happiness rankings. Which brings me back to us monsters. We simply want a happier, healthier, more just America. Where is the hate and madness in that?

While this should probably end here, I’m compelled to weigh in with others on racism and hatred. I’m perplexed that the writer and other fellow citizens view with different eyes and hearts than mine Charlottesville’s white supremacy, the demonization of refugees, the outrages at the southern border, the “presidential” bluntness of telling four black and brown women to “go back” where they came from, and the outrage over athletes kneeling in peaceful protest.

If we don’t see these actions as racially discriminatory, then where is our common ground? Where is our common understanding of “hatred” and “racism” and of our Constitution?

I long for this common understanding, and for a “good riddance” to the fear that gets in the way of our moving forward together.