Dear editor:

Who would have ever imagined that we would have a black man, a white woman and an old warrior running for President of the United States? All of the accompanying rhetoric of the campaigns is beginning to sound the same and is often contradictory from week to week.

I just want a patriotic American who is well learned and qualified and who simply wants to do the very best he or she can to prove America is the land of the free, home of the brave, and the country of equal opportunity for everyone who wants to work, and not to give one thought about being re-elected for another term. I do have some strong advice and admiration for the new president.

You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot help the wager earner by pulling down the wage payer. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by encouraging class hatred. You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn. You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man&8217;s initiative and independence. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.

If you care to challenge or argue these truisms, then go look up Abraham Lincoln and take him to task if you dare. He said these words when he ran for President in 1860. They are even more meaningful now than when he wrote them a century and a half ago.

Dr. Sumpter Blackmon

Camden