'NO COMPASSION'

Good for the Democrats, a ticket of common sense and realism for the
future. I will not vote for Republican war profiteers. Another one of their
puppets in the White House will result in more crowded classrooms and poorer
schools. Look at the poor Texas and California schools.

Overseas it will result in more wars on children. The oil companies have
favored non-military sanctions against Iraq because they disliked the
nationalizations of oil in Iraq. So their sanctions have visited disease and
death on Iraqi children, who are not my enemies. I will have no enemies the
military-industrial complex may dream up.

Likewise, the failed conservative fantasy of the "war on drugs" has wasted
trillions on prisons. We do not need more military fantasies like the
trillion-dollar "Star Wars" game.

We need therapy for drug users; it's much cheaper than prisons. We need
books for children and more teachers and classrooms and more plain old love
with a balanced budget.

Conservatives have no compassion. The Vietnam War taught me that they were
wrong. They are still wrong.

James Riley