Letters to the editor (6-20-18)

Make courtesy truly common

Excellent editorial about common courtesy (Feb. 13). We need that message now more than ever. It is unbelievable what our common discourse has eroded to be.

I have my favorite people to blame who I think started all this; but I won’t go into that now. But over the years, it has become commonplace for TV talk shows to have people yell at each other. If you think you can out-yell someone, you win the argument. That’s not true, but that’s the message.

More specifically, the worst thing is interrupting. What this means is, that when you are talking, I think whatever I have to say is more important than anything you could possibly have to say. This, at the least, is a terrible lack of respect for the other. At the worst, it is bullying.

When we see this on TV all the time, we think this is OK for us now to talk this way. When I was teaching, I really came down hard on kids who interrupted, and asked them to think what it meant for them to interrupt.

The absolute worst thing about all the political debates in 2016 was the way candidates interrupted each other. I actually wrote to the Presidential Debate Com­mis­sion and begged and pleaded with them to do one simple thing. I asked, if it was possible for the moderator to signal to the sound tech to cut off the microphone of the person whose turn it was to not speak.

You might hear them faintly in the auditorium, but not amplified in the auditorium, and not on TV. Let the candidate to whom a question is directed answer the question, fully and completely, and then shut off their mike. And vice versa.

The answer: They actually wrote back and said, “Yes, we’ve thought about that, and we’ll consider it.” But, alas, they never did. What this does is favor the loudest, rudest, most disrespectful, biggest bully. So, see what the result is.

Your last line is so profound, and yet so simple: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

In the era when one political party has the slogan of “Make America Great Again,” on the surface it seems there is nothing wrong with that slogan. But, if you trample over anyone in your way to accomplish that, do we really want that?

The Democratic Party, after a year and a half out of power, is still floundering to figure out an identity. I have suggested to several leaders and national columnists, how about exactly that: “Love Your Neighbor.”

We see how amazing that is when there is a disaster, hurricane, flood, tornado, or school shooting. The community rallies around, and the love of neighbor flows freely. How about doing that all the time?

If the Democrats could harness that and market that, they could avoid the simple “anti-Trump” position, to something extremely positive.

Thanks again.

Brian Stucky

Goessel

Florence mayor has lots to explain

Bob Gayle has a lot to explain to a lot of people.

First thing is that the city of Florence owns a piece of land across the river from the water plant on U.S. Highway 50, and last year Bob Gayle took personal funds in order to hide this from the council and secured the water rights.

His intention throughout this entire ordeal is to do away with the springs altogether and drill new water wells. He laughed many times about how he didn’t give a damn about the DeForest family; they can’t use the water at the springs anyway.

He has stated he would make sure nobody could access water on that Crystal Springs property when he’s done.

Oh, how I could enlighten people on this man and his evil behavior.

Amy Stutzman

Former city supervisor

(Nov. 2017 to Feb. 2018)

Florence

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