Letter: The ‘New’ Crucible…

lettertotheeditor

To the Editor:

In the crucible of American politics, today a new vision of America is being forged. It is not one born of Jeffersonian ideals of democracy, nor of Madison’s individual rights. It is not the vision of the greatness of Lincoln nor the promise of Kennedy. It is one born of the small minds of hate and the loathing of the tempest tossed. The rich vein of fear has been skillfully tapped and is being mined artfully by those skilled at manipulating this ore.

There are serious issues that need to be debated and very difficult questions that need to be answered. We are indeed a very different and more complicated nation than could have possibly been imaged by The Founders. But they did face real and similar problems. As they wrote the constitution in 1789 they seriously considered that the new country was too large and far-flung to be governed. There were serious doubts that rights of regions and that the views of new and different peoples were too extreme to be considered by one new united nation.  To be sure, there were vigorous and spirited debates about who should be allowed to be part of the new nation.

But they had the wisdom and temperament to know that this experiment would be the new light of the world and should be guided by wisdom and inclusiveness and not by pettiness.  And we are today the colossus of the world of which they would be proud.

The nation has been confronted internally many times by those who would bend the truth through their own prism of history and attempt to use fear to reshape the spirit of America to their vision. Our age now has its own set of Joe McCarthys. Let’s have the courage, wisdom and intellect to confront the challenges and rise to the greatness of The Founders.

“John Proctor”

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