To the editor:

Question: What is the purpose of nations generally and of America in particular?

Is it the American purpose to enable as few as possible to get as rich as possible as quickly as possible at any cost whatever to the many? Looking on from the outside, it certainly would seem so! Then the few typically use the notion of “patriotism” (usually a mostly foreign concept to them) to persuade the many that an external threat is exclusively theirs to meet, to “rally the troops,” so to speak – notwithstanding that the few likely have acted out of greed to precipitate that threat in the first place: Think oil in the Middle East!

I herewith propose that the “frequent flyers” on comment boards should please each offer up a statement of what they see as the purpose of our nation. Why do we bother with a “nation,” since we all seem to pull in so many different directions without any apparent coherent shared purpose?

Allen N. Wollscheidt

Cape Coral