Delo falls into his own trap

I was a bit surprised finding Howard Delo’s column in the Outdoors section dealing squarely with national politics, rather than outdoors. It goes to show just how much the November election means to so many Americans.

As a nonpartisan voter, I do my best to try and understand the side of issues with which I do not agree. I believe that most every voter has strong convictions and rationale for their beliefs and choices at the ballot box. This diversity of opinion is truly what makes a democracy great.

However, I am disturbed by trends in elections to turn to the politics of divide and conquer. Mr. Delo clearly turns to those wedge issues in his column after curiously opening with the statement, “I’m still amazed at the ruthless media treatment and unending ‘dirt’ digging which accompanies any pubic office seeker.”

Mr. Delo falls into the trap of extrapolating campaign rhetoric into future scenarios that spell gloom and doom for us all. Rather than refute each of Mr. Delo’s claims point by point with, by now, familiar counterattacks, I would point out that predicting the future has always been risky business. In today’s world, it is nigh impossible. Just ask Henry Paulson.

No one can claim that these are not precarious times for not only Americans, but for everyone. War, terrorism, financial system collapse, unemployment and home foreclosures are real problems that threaten the livelihood of us all, not to mention the problems of poverty, education, health care and racism that still plague our society.

I believe our country faces some extremely important decisions in the near future that will determine whether the world will continue to be a better place for our children and our grandchildren. More important than any single issue is that we as Americans must come together with a common purpose to make these decisions on behalf of America. The politics of division and extrapolating grand scenarios (Delo: “… eliminating hunting and trapping [and] … fishing won’t be far behind!”) does not help.

America became the greatest nation in the history of the modern world by coming together in times of crisis. The ability of diverse cultures in our country to work together in defeating German imperialism (twice), economic depression and Soviet suppression are proud moments in our history. Now is another one of those times of crisis.

I know that many of the divisive issues in this campaign are passionately important to many voters. But, making demons of the other side does not bring resolution. Understand that differences on issues do not make one side or the other “anti-American.”

The only path to resolution of the current crisis is to believe Americans can solve our problems and, while not resolving all our differences, we can move forward. We need to confront issues in a civil manner, at times vociferously, but never violently or without respect for each other’s beliefs.

Don’t you believe that that is what the founding fathers really had on their minds when they created the democratic model for our country that has become the envy of the world?

Bob Thompson is an educational auditor for the Department of Education and Early Development as well as a builder in the Valley specializing in small, energy-efficient housing.