Letters

“My country, right or wrong. If right to be kept right. If wrong to be set right.” I have always found things that we did right and it made me proud to be an American. I remember, some years ago, a Canadian columnist recorded a piece where he lamented the criticism leveled against us, because the critics ignored the good we did. It went viral before there was an internet. The part that stuck with me was his observation that wherever there was a disaster, or people in need, Americans were always the first to help.

Not any more. We have shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development, and hundreds of thousands of people are dying. We abandon victims of war in Gaza and Ukraine, unless of course they pay us enough money or adequately show their gratitude. People who flock here from chaotic lands do not find a welcoming smile and helping hand they find meanness and cruelty.

There is so little right we do anymore that needs to be kept right and so much wrong that needs to be set right that I fear we will never find our way back.

Melissa C. Batson

Monroe