Recent political rancor in the media gives a prime example of the problems facing our national discourse.

Listening to Rush Limbaugh, I was taken aback that anyone would use a description that dehumanized a woman, a person made in the image of God. And this in a debate defending religious liberty.

What is worse is how the side I actually agreed with attempted to deflect and rationalize the dehumanizing comments.

Civics used to be part of public education, as common as math class. George Washington’s farewell address was studied, as were the basic concepts of our Republic.

In his farewell  address,  President Washington stated in regards to political parties and loyalties to them, “You cannot shield yourselves too much against the jealousies and heartburnings which spring from these misrepresentations; they tend to render alien to each other those who ought to be bound together by fraternal affection.”

Is it not sad that anyone who would go forth in and speak to an important issue at our nation’s capitol would have to be subjected to the slurs that any husband, father, church member or citizen would consider inappropriate? Perhaps we are more like our dysfunctional D.C. than we realize.

Mick Sheldon
Kingston