Dear Editor,
In regards to “NLJ readers are lucky to have a voice of opposition” and “We would like solutions instead of complaints” on page 2 of the March 9, 2017 News Letter Journal:
Yes, it would be far more beneficial to discuss, via The News Letter Journal and/or at Donna’s Main Street Diner, ways to improve our lot in life.
There are many symptoms of our national dysfunction, but no clear cut remedy. That’s the problem to be solved.
But first, we must lay down our poison pens and listen to each other while trying desperately to not preach. This writer has neither the answers nor a plan, but observations and questions abound.
We seem impaled on the horns of a dilemma! One is the very nature of mankind which seems to have been inculcated during our long march out of the Rift Valley. Only the biggest, baddest humans survived to procreate and pass their genes on to subsequent generations. Mankind (a misnomer if ever there was one) does not lend itself to being magnanimous.
The other is the advent of political parties, which simply magnified the negative aspects of that ‘nature.’ Some few individuals have publicly risen above those brutish ways and are widely noted for their benevolence. Mankind needs many more.
Conquering heathens hasn’t worked. Religion seems to contribute more to the problem than to the solution. This is why we need friendly, non-argumentative, but serious discussion.
—Jerry Baird