Dear Editor:

In the past two weeks, I’ve had the pleasure of bumping into grandmas who spend a great deal of time researching online topics of interest and helping others resolve issues to clear up misconstrued assumptions or improve brain memory.

Previously I had discovered dancing grandmas in China who started the most popular hobby in China today, public line dancing. In other online searches, I found grandmothers in Harare, Canada, who were trained in problem-solving therapy.  

My first researched answer as to the difference between a democracy and a republic is the extent to which people control the process of making laws. According to thoughtco.com, the U.S. is neither a pure republic nor a pure democracy. Instead, it is a hybrid democratic republic.

My second researched answer to the definition of “republic” is, to quote the American Heritage Dictionary, “A political order in which the supreme power lies in a body of citizens who are entitled to vote for officers and representatives responsible to them. In conclusion, we are a “representative democracy”, which is a form of democracy. John Adams used the term in 1794; so did Noah Webster in 1785; so did St. George Tucker in his 1803 edition of Blackstone; and so did Thomas Jefferson in 1815.

Recently someone defined democracy nothing more than mob rule, where 51% of the people may take away the rights of the other 49%.” Not only are the mathematics wrong it’s based on a spurious quotation that provides no factual proof. In Maine only 65% of eligible voters voted, which means 35% did not. If 51% of the 65% voted for one representative, 36%, not 51% voted to elect a candidate.  In terms of taking away the rights of others, we have seen how one person took away the rights of a mother to feed her child.  Elected representatives without a majority of eligible voters have been attempting to take away healthcare rights and Social Security and Medicare rights.  

Grandmas may wear glasses, they may be older than the elected bodies, but their hearts and minds recognize wrong from right. Thank God we are a “representative democracy.”

Grandma Jarryl Larson

Edgecomb