Letter: Educate yourselves

We are all complicit in the shame, disgrace and loss of life that occurred at our house, our people’s house, democracy’s house January 6th.
We, every one of us, has sat at the kitchen table, or in the corner bar, shaking our head and saying “that’s not right, blankity, blank, son of a blank!” But, here’s a news flash for each and every one of us… as human beings, as citizens of this republic!
God tells us… our conscience tells us, every time we look ourselves in the mirror that each of us are fallible, mistake-prone human beings; we ain’t perfect! No one of us is. We’re not God.
That is why human beings devised the concept of democracy and why our forefathers some 240 years ago put in place our three-branched democratic system of governance. They wisely sought to minimize those individual fallibilities and maximize our potential for assuring our economic viability, our potential for social justice and a functional system of self-governance.
Was it perfect? Is it perfect? No, but its past and present imperfections are directly attributable to those of us as citizens, as fellow members of this estimable, venerable democratic republic who have behaved and, in the present, behave as children. No, I’ll go further, our children of a certain age at least, know to keep their hands off a hot stove.
Let’s call a spade, a spade. If we behave like whining, sniveling, crying, helpless infants, we get spanked. But, if we do so as citizens of this republic, we will lose our democracy, our freedom and possibly our lives.
We must carry out our sacred, estimable responsibilities as citizens of this republic, this nation, this God-endowed, citizen-embraced democracy to:

A. Have an accurate and in-depth understanding of how our system of governance works.
B. Take a full, accurate and ongoing part in the political process of understanding issues of concern to the body politic.
2. Understand, in-depth the individuals and issues which it is our responsibility to vote on and….vote.
Folks, it’s time to potty train yourselves, or at least learn to change your own diapers.
The rule of the mob is and can only be anarchy and destruction. A bullet from a Glock or AR-15, a fire or pipe bomb has all our names on it., has our venerable, God-blessed democracy’s name on it.
Inform yourself. Read, and I don’t mean some hatemongers’ blog. Encourage others to be informed, to educate yourselves as citizens, not to reinforce your prejudices, insecurities and fears.

Jim Martin, Perryville