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We must begin to heal our divided nation

To the editor:

How to heal a nation divided? We have done it before. Two prior times that come to my mind are the Civil War and the Vietnam War.

President Ulysses S. Grant did a good job after the Civil War with reconstruction and was cut down by Jim Crow and Plessy v. Ferguson. Civil rights has been a mess ever since.

I was in high school during the Chicago Democratic Convention riots in 1968. I served in the U.S. Air Force Presidential Honor Guard under President Richard Nixon and Vice President Spiro Agnew. My later duties led me to help return home the Vietnam prisoners of war.

The healing began when the war stopped. Nixon was impeached and President Gerald Ford pardoned him. Ford was hated by some for doing this but history has shown this was the right thing to do to let healing begin.

Today the deep divide came when President Donald Trump being elected was not accepted by half of the country four years ago. I find it odd that this divide is plus or minus right down the middle of our population. In order to start to heal much, compromise is in order. But first withdrawal from an impeachment trial that is doomed to fail and will serve no legitimate purpose and second a commitment to not pack the Supreme Court would be a good start. Compromise of election reform is needed (before the next election), restrictions on social media need to be put in place and enforced, the FISA court needs to be gutted and rebuilt, more oversight of the FBI is sorely needed, SEC rules and foreign investment laws need to be enforced vigorously and the Presidential executive order needs limits put in place. Congress should be leading these changes, not the president.

Congress needs term limits and needs to buckle down and do the work they were hired for and not worry about raising money for their party. Hopefully with term limits this money raising activity will decrease.

Democrats, need to get over Trump. You spent four years doing nothing but chase Trump to remove him from office and you barely got President Joe Biden elected. You now have four years to do your stuff and show the world you can do better.

Michael C. Spahr

Lewistown

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