Letter: We’re better when we speak up
Two incidents. One involving thousands of people honoring a fallen Marine in the Tri-Cities and another involving several thousand people behaving horribly toward people because of skin color in Virginia.
The common element is people. The difference is love vs hate. Alexis de Tocqueville is credited with writing, “America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”
I believe that the huge majority of America citizens are good but silent. The remainder use every opportunity to manipulate for their own purposes and many of those purposes are single-minded and not good for us as a people or a country.
It would be good if we, that are mostly silent, speak up. Contact those that we have elected and let them know our opinion. Talk with our friends. Make new friends who may not have the same opinion as we do.
America is what we make it. Don’t rely on the media. While it may be hard or inconvenient to be involved, it is a responsibility of every citizen.
Lenny Perkins, Richland
This story was originally published September 2, 2017 at 4:20 PM with the headline "Letter: We’re better when we speak up."