Grateful for dialogue

Mr. Skillman and Mr. Jaeger seem to have forgotten in their letters regarding ACH that this is America, where there is freedom of speech and even "liberals" and "opponents" are allowed to speak their minds without being exiled to a "new planet" for doing so, as Mr. Jaeger suggests. I'm grateful to live where dialogue can happen.

Too bad we seem to have lost sight of the notion of compromise, too, which used to go hand-in-hand with the notion of dialogue. Well, maybe Asante or Providence can bring some of that back to the dialogue? Let's hope. — Cara Davis-Jacobson, Medford

Nothing will change

Dr. Martin Luther King said: "Free at last — free at last — thank God Almighty— I'm free at last!" Now, after being subjected to endless campaigning (a longer period that I can remember), we are finally free of the bombast, accusations, lies, arrogance and made-up "facts."

What's happened to honest discourse regarding the issues and each candidate's plan for solving them? Why must we denigrate rather than rationally refute the other's plans? What's happened to the honor of serving your country?

Oh well, no matter who won, we can return to our recliners and continue to complain about what's wrong with the country (while apathy again recaptures our efforts). No problem, we can find out everything we need to know by listening to the experts (i.e. "news media"). They'll tell us the truth, right?

Perhaps most of us feel that no matter what we do, nothing will change, which seems to be the case.

I can't understand why any thinking person would vote for a man who did nothing but blame his predecessor for all of the problems and then had the temerity to ask for another four years. — Murray LaHue, Phoenix

Bear didn't attack

Regarding your headline of a few days ago, "Bear attacks hunter": It should be made clear the bear didn't attack anybody. It was minding its own business, getting ready for winter, when it was shot without any benefit to anyone except the hunter, who undoubtedly got a big tingle in his teeny weeny dingle.

The bear was only defending himself, and maybe the "hunters" learned a lesson. — Ed Cooper, Eagle Point

We don't live in a democracy

Remember, when you voted for president: You were voting for the electoral college voters in your state (that is who really elects a presidential ticket). The national "popular" vote does not mean a thing.

For those who are angry at this — whose blood pressure rises and whose neck vein sticks out — submit, to your congressperson, an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that changes the type of government that is the United States of America. We live in a representative republic with some democratic traditions, not a direct democracy.

Of course, the way your state runs things within the state is its own business. E pluribus unum — Out of Many, One — President Ronald Reagan, a staunch presidential advocate for states' rights, understood this very well. — Raymond Kelly, Medford