“Heartbroken by where America’s going” (Letter to the editor, May 4) was a great assessment of what’s gotten worse in our country in the last 80 years. But to get the total picture we also need to see what’s gotten better.

Consider vast improvements in medical care; my grandfather almost went blind because of cataracts. This year, I will have cataract surgery that will completely restore my sight. In 2016, I had quintuple bypass heart surgery that saved my life after a heart attack.

African Americans were living in semi-slavery in the South 80 years ago. People from Africa, Asia and most of Latin America were virtually banned from immigrating to America. Women today can be doctors, lawyers and engineers instead of mostly housewives. Handicapped people couldn’t climb the steps onto a bus. Today they can wheel their power chairs onto the bus. And voting at convenient early voting sites, let alone vote by mail, was unheard of 80 years ago.

In 1946, my mother had to write letters to my grandmother in Maine from Portsmouth, New Hampshire (only 50 miles away), because the phone calls were too expensive. Today, I call my aunt in Maine from Florida (1,300 miles away) for free on my cellphone. I can fly to Japan from Florida in one day; 80 years ago, the journey would have taken two weeks.

Yes, there are many things that have changed for the worse in America in the last 80 years. But there are many things that have also changed for the better.

Steve Scott
Sarasota, Fla.
former South Portland resident

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