Dear Editor,
There are two articles for attention this week.
First, (“Trump is not the non-politician we need dright now, August 31, 2017, News Letter Journal, page two) Jerry Baird obviously reads a lot of history and he has the definition of democracy right, and that is exactly what we are not. We are a republic, which is a nation of laws. We are that way because the founders from small states would not sign the Constitution unless they had some protection from the large states of New York, Philadelphia, and Virginia.
Democracies are unstable and rules can change by the whims of the people, not always for the better. They learned this lesson from ancient Greece.
This is what has happened in the last election. The people in the center of the country did not want Hillary as president, so they voted for Trump. He may not be the best president, but he is the preferred alternative. There are many times in life when you have to choose the better of two bad situations. Sometimes they even prove to be for the best.
Jerry seems to have an antipathy against wealthy people taking positions in government. He apparently thinks they are just doing it for their own benefit and some do.
The truth is that many have attained wealth on their own and desire to use their ability to promote the general welfare. It is human nature to try to acquire wealth, and although we live in a country of equal opportunity we are not all equal in ability.
Success by those with ability enables them to succeed and with their success comes wealth. They also provide jobs for many people and often contribute to the charities which help many people. Talented people are much better at providing jobs than any government.
The second letter (“The benefits of going organic far outweigh the extra cost, August 10, 2017, News Letter Journal, page two) is an example of misplaced belief.
The Idea that organic foods are more nutritious than “non-organic” (all foods are organic) has been disproven many times. Foods classified as organic still have pesticides, but they are self-produced by the plant. That is how the plant survives.
If we did not have artificially produced fertilizer and pesticides, we could not produce enough food to feed the people. Where did our abundant foods come from? Try eating like people did even 50 years ago. Many of us can remember what it was like.
The advocates of “organic” foods have long been on a campaign against modern agriculture, and they have convinced some people of their thinking. The author of the letter is young and does not have the judgement attained from age, but has formed his opinions from good sounding news articles. This is exactly the problem with the democracies advocated in the previous article.
Until about 75 years ago, nearly everything people ate was “organic” because they had to grow it and preserve it themselves on their own land. There are very few housewives who would like to go back to those days. One benefit may have been there were probably fewer people trying to reduce.
—Don Thorson