Imperialism had a bad name, but our imperial urges are old: We &8220;purchased&8221; Louisiana, annexed Texas, etc. Not content with a continent we dominated South America, chose the Spanish-American War and now launch pre-emptive wars.

Empires come and go. Religious leaders may blame their collapse on moral degradation. A historian suggests that the failure results from technological spread. Ecologists suggest that collapse is the result of environmental destruction. Each explanation can be seen in the United States today. Corruption is rampant in government and corporations. Moral degradation is seen in our emphasizing of self-indulgence instead of public well-being. Technology spread allows the outsourcing of white and blue collar jobs. Emerging nations compete for resources and markets. We destroy our environment. Our empire is on its way out.

In 2008 we must choose between a hero who will try to preserve our empire at our expense or a man who hopes to build communities capable of adapting to our changing circumstances. We citizens must admit that the party&8217;s over, that it&8217;s time to get back to the basics: food, clothing, shelter and basic medical care for everyone as we try to dig our way out from under the mountainous debts of the Reagan-Bush administrations. Until we citizens accept current realities, our representatives will be paralyzed by fear of being killed as the messenger who carried bad news. When we accept our situation, our congresspeople will be freed up to address our many problems creatively. Only the future can tell whether they/we will be successful.

John Gibson

Blooming Prairie

Franken inspires and is a breath of fresh air

On Feb. 9, I had the privilege of attending a rally in Fergus Falls for Al Franken, a candidate for the U.S. Senate. I left this inspiring event with the feeling that our country can indeed rise above the morass of fear and discouragement that have mired us down for the past eight years. Franken is a breath of fresh air in an atmosphere of public discourse that has long been sullied by double talk, deception and fear mongering.

Our country has many serious problems to face and overcome, but we can begin to find the solutions we so badly need with better leadership in Washington. We need people with the wisdom to invest in people and education, and to address transportation, energy and health care, instead of squandering billions of dollars in interest on the money we have borrowed from the Chinese in order to fight a fruitless war.

During the Bush administration, too much wealth has trickled up instead of down, while public policy has been geared to helping out the very richest people and corporations. These folks don&8217;t need any more help. On the Sunday morning TV news show &8220;Face the Nation,&8221; on Feb. 3, I heard John McCain, Republican frontrunner for president, say that everyone needs a tax cut.

I agree that middle class taxpayers need a tax cut, but people earning millions of dollars a year do NOT need their taxes cut; they are already not paying their share relative to their wealth and earnings and should be paying more. They don&8217;t &8220;need&8221; a tax cut in the way that someone earning, say $40,000 a year, needs more money to meet ordinary household expenses. Just the increase in the cost of gas and heating oil, and the sharply rising cost of food, is cutting into their budgets.

On Feb. 3 the associated press reported that Exxon Mobil Corp. made a profit last year of $40.6

billion, the highest annual profit ever made by any corporation in United States history. With these astounding profits, why is the cost of gasoline at the pump continuing to go up? Please, let&8217;s have a return to reason, and tax these companies enough to take the tax burden off the backs of the middle class.

It&8217;s imperative for the quality of life of ordinary Minnesotans that we put a Democratic President and Congress back to work in Washington.

It&8217;s time for Norm Coleman to go. His Republican agenda of helping out wealthy corporations, while ignoring the basic needs of a community, is weighted against the middle class.

Al Franken really cares about people. He grew up in Minnesota in a humble, middle-class family, graduated from Harvard, had a successful career in the entertainment field, and now wants to turn his prodigious energy to working for the people of Minnesota as a U.S. Senator. Al is smart, hard-working, and motivated to stopping the downhill slide in this country. Let&8217;s help him win the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senator at the DFL convention in June.

Elizabeth Sweder

Fergus Falls