My parents lived in a simpler, less anxious and stressful time.

They were in the World War II generation, and they depended on reliable news sources such as the AP, UPI, NBC, CBS and ABC. That time wasn't perfect because of things like social injustice or discrimination. It was our choice to deal with our social flaws in the past and it is our choice to deal with our complicated divisive lives today.

There is no reason to not have common sense rules concerning weapons of war being used by ordinary people. There is no reason not to separate the abortion issue from Female Reproductive Healthcare where some women almost die or lose their fertility forever. There is no reason to be listening to news sources that tell us only what we want to hear, omitting or denying facts that do not compliment a political philosophy.

Extremism is on the rise and half of us refuse to believe the truth.

Someone said: "there are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe lies and the other is to refuse to believe the truth." Whichever way you may be fooled, they both lead to abuse, exploitation and degradation of human dignity.

It is a choice between decent or angry attitudes. It is a choice of safety from guns or allowing no public place to be safe. It is a choice to build up our middle class to expand all the economy or just help the rich. It is a choice not to politicize religion or become religious hypocrites. It is a choice between corrupt behavior or law and order standards. We make the choice personally and socially as a culture.

When half of us fail good citizenship, we all lose.

WAYNE CRONE

Lynchburg

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