Following is the beginning of a poem written by William Butler

Yeats in 1919 just after WW I and the Spanish flu pandemic:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

As I witnessed what happened in our nation’s capital on Jan. 6, I have come to the conclusion that there are too many people on the extreme left and the extreme right. There are not enough people near the center anymore.

From the events of last summer when Democratic officials in Portland and Minneapolis let local businesses be looted and burned in what was called a “peaceful protest” to the Trump supporters on Wednesday storming the capital, some with confederate flags waving, the center is not holding. How appalling were both events.

I was 19 in 1980 when I voted for the first time. As a conservative republican I proudly voted for Ronald Reagan. (a side note — Nancy Pelosi was first elected to congress during the Reagan administration — just saying) I look back on the 80s and see a similar situation now with much different results. Democrats were in power in the House of Representatives as Tip 0’Neal presided as speaker. Together they passed and signed one of the largest tax cuts in US history and they did it all with dignity and grace. I am sure there were some back-room arguments and tense exchanges on the floor, but for the most part the US Government ran smoothly.

What happened to those times? I can tell you what happened, Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites happened, and the mainstream media became more liberal and biased than ever. And this started way before the Trump administration.

Today there are radicals on both sides in Washington that want everything their way with no compromise whatsoever. Their one and only goal is to get re-elected, it is all about them. They love the spot light; “Look what I did”, “look how virtuous I am”.

It doesn’t matter what the consequences are as long as they are re-elected. To use a saying that Joe Soucheray from the Garage Logic podcast uses; today’s politicians want to be important rather than useful. The liberals want to payoff student loans, what about the kids that have worked hard to pay their loans off themselves?

It is not the American people’s fault that you got a degree in philosophy and have not the means to pay your loan back. The radical liberals want to pass this green new deal. Their ultimate goal is to eliminate the use of fossil fuels and animal agriculture.

Do you know what that would do to us here in ag country? It would be devastating.

Once again, these people want to be important rather than useful. I will admit I am to the right of center and have proudly voted republican since 1980, but until we start electing people on both sides that will govern with grace and dignity and start being useful instead of important this country will continue to tumble down this rabbit hole and become more and more divided. Things will fall apart even more — the center cannot hold.

— Matt Coleman is a Marshall resident and vice chairperson on Marshall School District board.