To the Editor:

Confession: As a registered unaffiliated voter, I am often disillusioned with extreme partisan politics on both sides of the aisle. Naming names isn’t necessary.

So I share the following musings.

Can we claim that the Democratic experiment has succeeded in a political environment of more talk than walk, more tearing down than building up, and a colossal loss of civility? Is the Grand Conspiracy of all to foster public mis-education and political infighting to make Big Business safe for a false democracy?

I wonder, with a wisp of sadness, if the monied elite could give a damn about a real participatory citizenry, engaged in a vibrant culture of good and sound ideas and solutions.

Let me be candid: the super rich make more money and wield more authority and control when keeping everyone distracted through an endless profusion of factoids, opinions, dis- and mis-information, cultic expressions, and the unconscious glorification of ignorance, too often hailed as good ole American individualism.

Two words highlight this trend: “minutiae madness.”

John Adams warned of an uneducated public over two centuries ago.

Isn’t  it incumbent upon us, as a people, to make the effort to upgrade our learning curve to further make our so-called “freedom of expression” more meaningful, substantive, and, most importantly, a catalyst for action? Action, I might add, that secures the well-being of all Americans, whatever their religion (or not), political leaning, sexual orientation, ethnic origin, or economic level.

If one thinks all opinions are equal, then one is sanctioning (and excusing) Ignorance with a capital “I.” If we continue in this mode of shallow and madcap thinking, then the American experiment will eventually fail, and we will continue to kowtow to the Unholy Trinity of Big Business, Big Media, and Big Government, the representatives of which will continue to diminish our no lives through continual distraction and, yes, defiance.

Let’s show them how intelligent we “can” be.

Let’s show them we can act for the good of all the people included in the monumental word “WE.”

Richard J. Holmes

Hays