Senator's essay offered hope for better future

To those of us who find ourselves politically homeless these days, siding neither with the angry right populists nor the equally angry left progressives, Sen. Flake's Oct. 26 essay, "Enough" was like a breath of fresh air. In our current environment of insults, name calling and generally adolescent behavior, Sen. Flake's "bracing moral clarity in the face of a moral vandal" (to quote his essay) was welcome indeed.

While we all have our various political views and opinions, most of us never signed up for the adolescent behavior and zero-sum politics that passes for governing and leadership in Washington these days.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "Those who see have the responsibility of seeing." I am grateful that Sen. Flake and a handful of others in Washington "see" what is happening to our nation and have the courage to speak the truth about it.

It is up to all of us, right and left, who still believe in the values of civil discourse, compromise, the dignity of all persons and the common good to work together toward peaceful resolutions to heal the angry wounds that divide us as a nation. Perhaps one day, we will find ourselves "home" once again.

Dennis Dieball

Libertyville