Dear Editor,

If we can see past the United States presidential campaigns’ diversionary mud-slinging we realise we all just want to be safe, and that starts with strength in our leadership.

When feeling unsafe, it’s so easy to fearfully react with one-sided anger, and therefore respond to issues by overpowering others. But is strength really in bulldozing others when resultant extremist groups, who meet fire with fire, then emerge in even greater numbers — not to mention the creation of similar divisive subgroups at home? So, is reactive, divisive assault truly strength that yields safety?

Do we in the United States want a president who is lightning fast to take offence and lives life on the offensive in general, and who reacts to the world as something for him to win/conquer for fear of getting conquered? What happened the last time someone in power with tremendous charisma felt that way? What could happen today, given all the nuclear weapons in play?

Or do we want a president who is emotionally balanced — even when tested to the limit time and again — and who is therefore able to rationally think through complex, interrelated issues, and who also has the experience of a lifetime of successfully finding common ground on the national and the world stage?

It takes self-awareness, compassion, temperamental restraint, knowledge, experience, and intelligence to understand that everyone only wants to feel safe. And, like it or not, we all need each other to survive. We have to thoughtfully, instead of reactively, balance the many moving parts of this complex world; a world that often hangs in a precariously delicate balance.

Real solutions often take time, patience and compromise, include a show of force only when necessary, and are comprised of so much more than we’re privy to for national security reasons.

I sent this letter to newspapers throughout the United States. I’m sending it to newspapers throughout the world to let people know there are many of us in this country who feel the same way I do.

Michelle Sullivan

Springfield, IL, USA

michelle113@comcast.net