Dear Editor,

I think that everyone can agree on the fundamental issues, though we may describe them differently.
For instance, universal human rights. God-given rights endowed by our creator and thus cannot be infringed upon by any law made by man. Even if you aren’t religious, can you see the value in something like inalienable rights?
So why would we try to split it into “X” person rights and “Y” person rights?
How about trusting adults to make their own informed decisions about their body and lifestyle? After all, if you can’t trust people to act in an informed manner, how could you trust our democracy? Their body, their choice. It doesn’t mean we have to humor people for their decisions, but shouldn’t we at least respect them?
And heck, why not “go there?” I think we can all agree slavery is bad, so shouldn’t we celebrate that, as a nation, we ended the practice that had existed globally since the dawn of civilization and continues to this day? Shouldn’t we be rejecting products and services from nations that still engage in slave labor, and focusing with every iota of our capability to end the human trafficking (a polite word for slavery) within our borders, our state, and communities?
How about energy? I’m sure there’s more than a few folks wondering after the recent storms and outages. Don’t we all want sustainable, reliable energy? What does it take to provide as much clean, sustainable, reliable energy to every home with every device that we got hooked up into the grid?
Now, I’m sure I got all the right answers, as do you, reader, but how do we figure it out? Well, we have to sit down and talk about it, to disagree without taking offense, and to listen to understand rather than to respond.
At the end of the day, I think there’s more we can agree on than we disagree on. And I’m willing to put my time where my mouth is.
Let’s set a time and a place and get to talking!

Sincerely,
Steve Sioma
Clarkston