Letter - Can't we all just try to get along?

Talk about it

To the editor:

I find the venomous exchanges on the Echo Press website amongst your readership to be appalling. Attack and insult seem to be the only bromides available. The prevailing notion appears to be that one can dominate by emasculation. The concepts of civil discourse and respectful listening are nonexistent. Every published letter to the editor becomes an online podium for distasteful diatribe between self-righteous factions.

In basketball we say “no harm, no foul” but that’s not the case here. Harm is the intent. Not only is there no effort to conduct dialogue, there’s an adolescent and mean-spirited effort to squash it. Our resident contemporary philosopher Rodney King appealed, “Can’t we all just get along?” There seems to be little hope of that.

My wife and I have just returned from a 17-day trip to China. While by no means a panacea, what we observed was a nation more committed to building than bickering. They believe that tomorrow is theirs and, while that may be inevitable, it certainly doesn’t preclude a renaissance for us in the U.S. I hold little hope of that happening, however, as long as we engage in self-destructive behavior.

Whether you hold the belief that Bush’s policies protected us or exposed us, whether you hold the belief that Obama’s strategies are inspired or insane, should matter not. If we don’t pull together constructively, our days of glory as an empire are as faded as Rome’s or Britannia’s.

Dennis Q. Murphy

Alexandria, MN

Tags: opinion, letters, dennis, q, murphy