Are people becoming worse every day or does it only apply when politics are involved?

The story of U.S. Rep. Glenn “GT” Thompson celebrating the marriage of his son should have ended with just that statement. But instead, the haters showed up and decided to take the opportunity to tie Congressman Thompson’s love and respect for his son and his new son-in-law to his vote on a bill concerning same sex marriage.

What parent has never said to their child, “I don’t agree with your position, but it’s your life not mine?”

We have a son-in-law who is a St. Louis Cardinals fan, and we have bought that hideous bright, red Cardinal gear for the grandchildren. What hypocrites that makes us.

You can have an opposing view on a subject and still love a child or respect a neighbor with a different opinion. How often do you think a Pitt fan and a Notre Dame son-in-law share the same view of how badly the Irish cheat at football games?

Of course, allegiance to varying college sports teams isn’t being voted on by Congress (imagine how badly they could screw that up), but we as the media feel we need to make personal decisions by elected officials into attack items.

Let it be stated again; a personal feeling or belief doesn’t always coincide with what an elected official believes is best for his constituents.

There also is the problem with “belief” as in religious positions. Maybe a good phrase would be to disagree with the position but continue to love and respect everyone.

No, that won’t work in today’s world. What would we do with all the time we spend hating people who disagree with us if we stopped being rude and inconsiderate?

Media, local and national, need to quit making front page news out of people’s private lives if it isn’t a crime.

Why would anyone want to be in public office with the way we treat them after we elect them? It would help if once they are elected they don’t repeat the same things they fought against while getting elected (such as nepotism).

We need good, strong, intelligent and considerate candidates for offices at all levels. But very few are willing to subject themselves to the awful way they are treated by the public and the media as well.

Even if we believe there are way too many extremists running and getting elected, we need to appreciate the willingness to serve and hope that any selfish reasons for wanting to be elected are over-shadowed by a desire to serve their neighbor.

— RV