Please don't be rude to political canvassers; they are patriots

To The Daily Sun,

Recently there was a letter to the editor from one of our local characters, bragging about his shenanigans while harassing a canvasser from the Kamala Harris campaign. Sure, being rude and obtuse is “fun” but it’s really not polite and is generally uncalled for.

One of the luxuries of a modern liberal democracy is that citizens do not have to participate in politics or government. We don’t have to vote. We don’t need to know the names of our representatives of even the vice president. We are free to live our lives as happy, fun seeking consumers, unaware of the structure of function of our government “of the people and by the people.” Most of us would likely fail the citizenship test that new immigrants are required to pass.

Most of the people canvassing and working for the campaigns are volunteers spending countless hours working for free. There are a few paid interns, but they are generally making just enough to live away from home for the time they are in N.H. They are true patriots and like the military are a minority of citizens that actually participate in keeping America functioning as representative democracy (the word "democracy" directly translated from the Greek as a “government of the people").

While it can be annoying to have a knock on your door when you don’t want it, remember that you can simply not answer the door or just say,”no thank you.” Personally, I have had people who did not support the party that I was canvassing for tell me that but also say, “thank you for doing what you are doing.” I feel very grateful for those words of encouragement.

So please let’s all try to put aside the thrill of running people off your property and instead appreciate the work that these volunteers do. Work that as Americans we are all called to do but not obligated to do so.

Michael Dowe

Gilford