Voters must rise above party politics

My father came here from Czechoslovakia at age 11 and ended up fighting in WWII as a Marine in the South Pacific. He was very proud of his adopted country; a true believer in what this country stands for. He was wounded during combat, and when he came home, he dealt with the horrors of the war in his own way. Some of those ways were not very healthy, but he and we carried on.

That is why I find it so sad and frankly, disgusting, when we have politicians who are advocating for states to secede from the United States or advocating for states to ignore the laws of the land and do what they want to do instead of following the legal paths to changing those laws. I cannot imagine how the families of soldiers who have lost their lives trying to protect and defend this country think about what is going on right now.

I hope, but I am not hopeful, that voters will think about protecting and defending the country and the Constitution with their votes instead of aligning with a political party. Our country, our democracy, depends on it.

Lani Jabeneau

Palatine