To the editor:
On July 4th weekend, 22 years ago, my husband and I topped the Saluda Grade for the first time and gasped at the beauty of the valley below.
In the city of Columbus we witnessed true community spirit and experienced Southern hospitality for the first time. Before the week was over, we bought a house and in 1992 we made the move to make Polk County, N.C. our home. We were welcomed, guided and counseled in the customs, language and ways of our adopted home, by people who had lived here all their lives.
All they asked us to do was listen, learn and be in dialogue with them. We shared ideas, thoughts, and histories. We learned to respect each other and our differences.
Our politicians used to sit down and discuss things, but they seem to have lost the ability/desire to see or accept any point of view other than their own. They seem to have forgotten that the people elected them to represent their needs and have become more beholden to big money interests.
Many good projects are being voted down before any or very little discussion about how the best interests of all Americans can be served.. The Health Care Act is only one such item.
Without even considering how to make it work better for all, some who are running for the highest office in the country, have said they will make its repeal a top priority.
My great-granddaughter, Crystal Rose,  is 5 years old and suffers from a rare form of Leukemia, with a blood type of AB-. She has a sister who is severely autistic. Because of The Health Care Act, this family is able to get good care.
Without it, how will they manage? How many other families are there like this? Will the local hospital ER take care of them?
To have differences within a community is a good and normal thing. To talk about these differences without vilifying each other, but with a willingness to compromise, is what makes a community great.
Why can’t our politicians put aside partisan politics, forget about making their main objective to get re-elected, sit down in community, and really try to find solutions to the country’s problems?
What happened to the idea of friends calmly discussing their differences? What happened to common sense?
America  has been, and can be again, the greatest community in the world, if we will just come together and listen to each other in a climate of mutual respect and kindness, setting aside economic status, party politics, race and ethnicity.
– Dolores Zeese, Columbus