To the editor:

I would like to thank the patriotic American who put the United States and Rhode Island flags and the "United We Stand, Divided We Fall" banner on the overpasses on Route 24. It is a good reminder of what we as Americans must do now, more than ever. It seems that political factions want to tear this country apart with one thing or another, getting the major media behind them to promote their particular viewpoint, instead of promoting what is best for America as a whole. 

The more I read and hear the news regarding the elected politicians in this country today, the more I keep thinking about what Benjamin Franklin said to a woman who asked him what kind of government the Constitutional Convention at Independence Hall had created after four months' work. He said, "A republic, ma'am, if you can keep it." 

The Founders were adamant that this country should NOT be a Democracy, because historically democracies do not last (e.g., Greece and Rome). Instead, they created a Constitutional Republic which constrains the government and protects the rights of the individual. We need to keep our Republic as the Founders meant for it to be. We need to tell our elected officials to embrace this patriotic American's mantra and stand united in doing what is best for America as a whole in order to keep it as a true Constitutional Republic. 

Otherwise, if they keep dividing the country by promoting interests for political gain and imposing the will of the majority on the minority (e.g., "That's not PC") like a Democracy, America will truly fall and all the hard work of our Founders, and the sacrifice of all of our Veterans to preserve our Constitutional rights and freedoms as a Republic will be for naught.

President Abraham Lincoln saw this happening as well. He prophesied, "America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."

By the way, although we might attribute this "United" quote to the American Revolution timeframe (such as "The Liberty Song" by John Dickinson in 1768; one line is: "Then join hand in hand, brave Americans all! By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall."), it actually goes back to the early Greek Aesop in his fables "The Four Oxen and the Lion" and "The Bundle of Sticks"; the former has the quote we use today as its moral, and the latter has a similar moral.

Susan Anderson

Tiverton