(In response to, “America has never stopped being great,” a letter by J. Galer, The Citizen, April 9, page 6)

Dear Editor
While I have no interest in playing tennis with anyone on this page, I felt it necessary to respond to Miss J. Galer`s response to my letter.

First of all, it is good and healthy to discuss the challenge`s facing our country so I commend Miss Galer for expressing her views. It is what a free people do. In my letter I never said that I support Donald Trump. In fact, I probably don`t support him. What I said is that I know why he is winning most of the Delegates and States. People are tired of the ‘Status Quo’ in Washington and are looking for any kind of change. And you have to agree, whether you like him or not, Donald Trump is different. As for Miss Galer`s comment about all of us having free speech rights, whether inside or outside a political rally, she is correct.

The problem here however is when protesters through their violent actions force the cancellation of a political rally, they have restricted the free speech of those who would have attended that rally. And when protesters who are supposedly exercising their free speech block roads to prevent others from attending a political rally, they have trampled on the free speech of those people. The other subject here is that our government has created an ‘Entitlement’ society. They have done this to secure their jobs and have people dependent on them. This is a concept foreign to our Constitution, which is a document that was written to put restrictions on government, not regulations on people. The Founding Fathers created a government that was to be a ‘Servant’ to the people. Unfortunately, over time, government now has become the ‘Mother’ to the people, regulating our very existence. As for your comment Miss Galer that America has never lost its greatness, I feel that we have lost some. A government that has military presence in 135 other countries, and has allowed the debt to reach 21 trillion dollars, certainly has lost some greatness. There is a big difference between defense spending and military spending. Would I want to live anywhere else? Absolutely not!

And I totally agree with Miss Galer that it is up to we the people to do the research on our own using all available resources so we can make voting decisions that we are comfortable with. I am a 63 year old middle class hard working White Male with 43 years at my present job and I want any of America`s lost greatness back.
Thanks again

Joe Mento
Ortonville