NATION: Come together

It’s time we Americans stop feeling as if the other political side of the aisle is ignorant, uninformed, hateful because we don’t agree.

People on both sides often get their news from one side without being aware of the many biases in media today.

I beg you to expand your news gathering to all views. Truth often lies near the middle.

Just because it’s printed, it doesn’t mean it’s truth. It is shocking to see for yourself how something can be spun so badly or how an interview can be made to sound as if someone is saying something they are not. Look it up.

If you see something that you find highly objectionable, that you just cannot understand why your fellow American doesn’t see what you see, ask yourself if YOU have ever had that willful blindness caused by your own bias.

In the end, we’re all just imperfect people, with imperfect politicians, with two opposing sides by constitutional design doing the best we can.

So, while it is important to stand for what you believe, remember we may not agree on how to fix these issues, yet fully agree they need to be fixed.

We are not each other’s enemy, but co-owners of the greatest nation ever built. We have to remember what we have in common rather than what divides us.

RONDA SMITHSON

Albany, Ore.