Editor,

I do not advocate what I am about to suggest. For unlike the Republicans in Congress, I have no desire to go back to a time when autocracy ruled this land. It was a time when only extremely wealthy industrial barons held all the ruling power. It was a time when the majority of Americans lived in poverty as serfs to the oligarchs who ruled them. If they were in the cities and lucky, they and their children could work at one of the baron’s factories for cruelly long hours in appalling conditions for pennies a day. If they were rural, perhaps they could toil away their lives trying to farm on a small plot of land owned by the land barons. Most of what they earned would go to the landlord or the banks, leaving precious little for their families’ survival. Health care was only for the wealthy. If the poor got sick they either got better on their own or they died. Life expectancy was short for those without wealth.

Perhaps we should travel far enough back in time to when those serfs would occasionally rise up against their oppressors. The corrupt politicians who worked only for the oligarchs would be dragged from their gilded offices, tarred, feathered and run out of town on a rail. Perhaps not.

Please America, consider carefully the direction our present regime is heading. Do we really want to take our nation back to a time when America was great for a very select few and miserable for most everyone else? Personally I would much rather see us moving our civilization forward for the benefit of all concerned.

DAVID WRIGHT

Freeland