Can Founding Fathers show us the right way?
When our Founding Fathers gathered in Philadelphia in the summers of 1774 and 1775, they came with serious differences on several subjects (slavery, states’ rights, foreign relations, etc.), but they managed to agree on the inspired plan set forth in the Declaration of Independence because they recognized it was necessary to work together, rather than being focused on their differences. Our political climate today is far different, and the name our forefathers gave our country is no longer accurate. We are no longer united, but many of us would like things to be different.
Differences of opinion do not keep us from being united. Instead, it is the way we treat each other because of those differences and an unwillingness to recognize the importance of negotiation for a democracy to work that are sources of our disunity. We need to acknowledge that America is a big, complicated place made up of many competing ideas. For that discussion to be productive, we must regain a measure of mutual respect, turn down the temperature of our rhetoric, and recognize that honesty and civility are important requirements for meaningful conversation.
Let’s take the lessons our Founding Fathers passed on to us and use them as guidance for today. It’s a tall order, but let’s accept the challenge to once again become the United States of America.
Steve Bovell
Ooltewah
Leadership needed for soldiers in cities
I served 24 years in the National Guard, including deployments to Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom. I am very worried about soldiers being deployed in our cities. I am not worried about National Guard soldiers doing their jobs because when activated, they react as active duty soldiers. It’s the national leadership of Pete Hegseth and Donald Trump that worries me.
When deployed, soldiers need to be dressed just like ICE in helmets and full “battle rattle.”
Have they been given their “rules of engagement” as to when and where they can use deadly force? They should have planned for food and living quarters before deploying these soldiers.
I worry that without competent national leadership, a Kent State-type of massacre will happen.
Please pray for our soldiers being sent to the cities to fight a nonexistent enemy.
Joel Blake