LOU MARTUCCI, Pasco

We are bombarded these days with the implications of strife and struggle for many Americans if our nation cannot resolve the financial dilemma we face before Jan. 1, 2013.

The media have echoed the pending doom, decried the economic collapse and projected the bleak morass that faces the "man in the street" if the executive and congressional branches of our government do not perform due diligence in avoiding a crisis that demands their close cooperation, and pleads for sanity in these uncertain times.

If our government leaders seek continued economic recovery, if they seek the confidence of the people who put them in office, if they seek freedom from fright for American people, then come together now and give us relief. In the spirit of President Reagan's plea to Mr. Gorbachev in June of 1987, concerning the bleakness and grief posed by the hated Berlin Wall, our national will at this time can be voiced with this singular plea: Mr. President and members of Congress, "Tear down this fiscal cliff!"