Letter to the Editor: "Stop the senseless partisanship and vote 'Yes'"

(The following Letter to the Editor was submitted by Jono Ruf, formerly of Decorah):

"I am perplexed at the resistance to the municipal electric utility vote. The vote is merely to further explore the issue and to get the actual numbers. It is not a vote to actually go through with the creation of such a utility. What is wrong with finding out the most information we can? What if Alliant's numbers are not accurate? It would not be the first time in history a large corporation was dishonest with the public when the issue at hand was going to affect their bottom line. So where does this resistance come from?

Perhaps a new study can help to elucidate what is going on in lovely Decorah. This study revealed that American voters may actually be more motivated by "winning" than by the actual issues, as people are engaging in a sports mentality and want to "beat" the other person (party). This in my opinion is spot on, and is ensconced within both parties. I recently heard a woman refer to our protest as "disgusting" because "they are all Democrats."  I routinely hear Democrats use similar types of language. It is senseless.

What is happening is not necessarily surprising considering how polarized our citizenry has become, especially around the issue of politics. Our sports culture--which is very focused on winning and being the best--continues to be widely celebrated and and the most time-consuming hobby for many Americans. This combined with a woefully inadequate press, (anti)social media, and hugely influential platforms like Google and Facebook changing their algorithms in order to censor information, leaves for a very confused, misinformed, and sadly divided public.

 Please do what is best for Decorah, and you cannot do that without knowing all of the information. Please vote "Yes" May 1st. What is the harm in more information?"