CHANGE AND COMPLAINT MAKE AMERICA GREAT

This great country of ours has changed a lot since we adopted our
constitution. The constitution and its bill of rights ensured that we would
be able to evolve as a country. We cherish our ability to change that
within our government which is not working. We love it so much that we are
in Iraq at the expense of American life to see that the Iraqi people have
the ability to change in their government that which is not working. The
changes that have occurred in our country have kept it great. People like
Abraham Lincoln, Susan B. Anthony, and Martin Luther King all saw the need
for change. Every great change has been precipitated by people complaining,
or speaking out. It is our ability to do so that we seem to be most proud
of. It is in our doing so that we exercise the freedom that we cherish.

John McDonald writes to the Observer that he is tired of reading Ed
Decker's "anti- American diatribes every other day," yet for some reason he
reads every one.

Now, I'm not comparing Ed Decker to the above mentioned complainers, but I
wonder who was the John McDonald of the day that told Abraham, Susan, and
Martin to "pick a better country?" What Mr. McDonald had better learn is
that change can be good. Who is 100 percent satisfied how the country is
being run at any level? I noticed that McDonald didn't say that what Mr.
Decker was saying wasn't true. He just doesn't like to read about it.

Like Ed Decker, I have been writing letters of complaint to the Observer,
beginning in 1992. I found out the year before that marijuana was good for
relieving my wife's multiple sclerosis induced pain and spasticity. We
would have known sooner but Cheryl never used marijuana recreationally,
obeying our nation's laws. Cheryl was arrested March 30, 1998 for eating
marijuana in a congressman's office in Washington DC. She battled on and
fought for change until the day she died, June 7, 2003. People like Cheryl
are what makes this country so great.

Now I continue on without the light of my life. I will finish what Cheryl
and I started. I will continue complaining and backing it up with action. I
go to Washington, DC every Wednesday, leaving Silverton at 3:30 a.m. and
returning at 10:00 p.m. I started that schedule a week and a half after
Cheryl died. I visit congressional offices to complain. I visited 18 last
time there. Not one told me to "pick a better country, or be quiet."

JIM MILLER Silverton