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As I contemplate our amazing national history, two giants of the Revolutionary War era, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, come to mind, along with their ideas about what later became part of the First Amendment to our Constitution.

From John Adams: “The moment we no longer have a free press, anything can happen. What makes it possible for a totalitarian or any other dictatorship to rule is that people are not informed; how can you have an opinion if you are not informed. If everyone always lies to you, the consequence is not that you believe the lies, but rather that nobody believes anything any longer.”

From Thomas Jefferson: “... and if it were left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without government, I should not hesitate to prefer the latter, but I should mean that every man receive those newspapers and be able to read.”

If we are to remain a constitutional republic, we must listen to these men of our past. —David LeBleu, Kalispell