Bless your hearts David Wilson and Randy Biggerstaff, whose letters to the editor were published in Wednesday’s and Thursday’s newspaper, respectively.

Didn’t your mothers teach you that, if you did not have something nice to say, don’t say anything? Your attacks on Democrats are right out of the Republican book of “alternative facts.”

At least admit our entire Congress and presidents have utterly failed us. Both parties have put their own personal interest and their special interest groups ahead of our country.

The Trump shutdown was a symptom of how dysfunctional our federal government has become.

Yes, we need to fix our immigration problems, but it’s not as simple as putting up a border wall, which has become a distraction to dealing with complex problems and paradoxes we’ve been facing for decades and Congress has refused to address.

Demonizing Democrats or only referencing facts supporting your views and ignoring other inconvenient facts is not helpful. Unfortunately, given all of the biased reporting, blogs and rabid radio and TV shows focused only on ratings and market share, not facts, it requires much more work and time to become an educated citizen than ever before.

We all, including myself, need to do more homework and fact checking before we vent our opinions or try to persuade others to our viewpoint.

— Fred Krusemark

Salisbury