The state of our local and national leadership forces us to examine our collective conscience. In the individual when the ego supersedes the conscience, behavior becomes more primitive and potentially dangerous to others.

This type of behavior starts with deceit and malignantly progresses to the disregard for the welfare of others. This behavior in our leaders is intolerable and, more importantly, hostile to the welfare of our state and that of our nation.

Our democracy faces a stringent test. Can we unveil our collective conscience and admit that we’ve made mistakes in our choices of leadership?

To do this we must raise our voices above the disruptive clamor of systemic untruths, a dark system that stifles the voice of conscience.

The question remains, can we implement our dissent? This letter is a brief attempt to answer in the affirmative.

John P. Driscoll

Falmouth