As he always does, John Balentine makes sense and puts forth good ideas and suggestions. Among the many in his Jan. 28 column, “What’s a conservative to do?”, some that stood out to me are: Write letters to the editors of your local newspapers (such as the one you are reading now), write opinion letters to your elected officials (at all levels of government), and run for local offices:  Mayors, town councils, yes, but school boards are the key. The public (“public” here meaning “government”) school systems in the good old U.S. of A are well on their way to becoming – and many already are – left-wing/progressive, socialist/communist seminaries, not educational institutions. Yes, dear reader, even yours.

At colleges and universities (it’s interesting that these are invariably called “post-secondary” rather than “tertiary” schools, likely because the current state of affairs in our primary and secondary school systems is such that the limited vocabulary of the graduates does not include the word “tertiary”), the sad situation is that, in order to shield the 18- to 22 year old supposed adults encamped therein from feeling “uncomfortable” or experiencing “micro-aggressions,” the entire campuses have been transformed into what are basically giant, expensive day care centers.  For 18- to 22 year old babies.  Parents – are you taking notice here?

Has anybody read Orwell’s “1984” or Huxley’s “Brave New World” lately?  Rhetorical questions, I know, but rhetoric – in the classical Greek sense – is something that would benefit us all and needs to be reinvigorated among us.  Promote and proclaim a thesis.  Others will then do the same with an antithesis.  Then, after vigorous debate and argument, what will emerge is a synthesis – a combination of the good things each side has brought to the forum, and a rejection of the bad things.

John, keep up the good work; fight the good fight.  We can – and must – turn America around, back to being that beacon of liberty and freedom we inherited from our founders and ancestors.

Russell Frank
Gorham