Thoughts on Thoughts
I recently read two opposing letters to the editor by two citizens, both of whom I call friends. Both have worked most of their lives in McDonough County.
Both have raised two very fine children. Both men love their country. Both are understandably concerned with the future welfare of their children and grandchildren.
Of course the letters could not present two more directly opposed visions of our country today. This is what we call discourse.
While I commend Mr.
Coutre for responding in an open forum and standing up for his beliefs, I must take issue.
I have known and liked him for many years now.
He is nothing if not hard working, caring, and intelligent. That is why it is so difficult to see a friend fall prey so easily to the appeals to fear and selfishness that the Magaverse unceasingly drums into the minds that it has captured. I find it Orwellian and disturbing, as it turns friends and family into little juvenile megaphones.
I believe Mr. Coutre robotically regurgitates every MAGA talking point that he has been spoon-fed for years now. Almost like a parrot his “letter” / list is peppered with propaganda and conspiracy theories.
Marxists. Communists.
Nazis. Baby killers. Soros.
Liberal media.(As if). Abolishing law enforcement? It’s simple. It’s common sense.
All Democrats hate America.
He amplifies the caveman instincts of fear and hate and division that live in our DNA. Influencers. Politicians. Con-men. Authoritarians. They know them all too well. They’ve been used from the beginning of time to lead men into war, brutality, and dominance. I believe it is as human beings that we all need to resist this constant pull toward our darker sides.
As true Americans we need to appeal to, as the great Abraham Lincoln said, the “better angels of our nature”. In demonizing the minority, the homeless, the poor, the OTHER, we lose our very souls.
My intent here is not to preach. There but for the grace of God go I.
Dick Marcott Macomb, Illinois
