To be actually united
There are two parts of the U.S. Constitution that I see as flaws that have evolved because of changes in our culture and personal honor since the 18th century.
As I understand U.S. history and the development of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights was drafted to address the fears of the 13 colonies of losing their individual sovereignty and a too-powerful central government. They saw this as exchanging the domination of the king of England for a similar powerful central government; a government too far removed from individual citizens by distance and communications. There was much to support this attitude in the 1800s, and it did in fact help unify the "United States of America."
Over the centuries since, these "unifying" principles have become the very things that separate us, and we have replaced the United States with the Several States.
It seems to me that it's time we amend the Constitution and make such things as voting laws, gun safety, abortion and public health practices nationally determined, not locally. Only then can we rightfully refer to this as the United States of America.
JAMES VANDERGRIFT
Little Rock
Seems the right thing
Now that Columbus has been designated as a person not to be admired, shouldn't the holiday be canceled and the government workers can go back to work and earn their pay?
DALE R. JONES
Hot Springs Village
Needs to stop talking
For a time, Virginia was a reliable Republican state in presidential elections. No more. Congressional Republicans have helped Democrats turn Virginia reliably blue by extravagantly funding the ever-bloating federal bureaucracy with its parallel lobbyist class, mostly housed in the ultra-rich northern Virginia suburbs. Add to this ivory-tower Republican support for easy immigration policies that favor big business and draw more mass Democrat voters to northern Virginia.
Glenn Youngkin, an outstanding Republican candidate for governor of Virginia has, (or had) a good chance to rescue Virginia from fanatically neo-communist Democrats. He can help return Virginia to a habit of voting for Republican presidential candidates. All of this means that the Virginia election is important to America at large. It's a lot more than a local matter.
Enter Donald Trump sticking his nose in with insinuations that the Republican's win will get Trump an accurate vote count in Virginia. There is no indication that Trump didn't get an honest count in Virginia. Trump's uncalled-for "endorsement" is already being used as a Democrat campaign ad because the Virginia suburbs trounced Trump in 2020, and those suburbs will not support a Republican who says Virginia elections are dishonest. Besides, Virginia already audits every election. Trump lost Virginia by nearly 500,000 votes. Even if he proved that 100,000 votes were stolen he still wouldn't have won Virginia, nor the national election.
Acknowledging Trump's presidential successes does not negate the fact that with him it's all "Me, me, me, me, me. I won, but I was cheated out of the White House." The U.S. Senate wouldn't be in a Democrat lock on the brink of passing a spending, taxing, big-government remake of America if Donald Trump had kept his mouth shut and his presence out of Georgia before its Senate runoff election in January. A losing political candidate who keeps ranting, "I won, but I was cheated out of it," rarely, if ever, wins another campaign.
GERALD HOLLAND
Bentonville