This election will decide for a very long time whether our nation will be free and progressive or subject to the control of an administration and a party that has traditionally fought against the rights of women, fought the right of workers to form labor unions, resisted Social Security, fought against a national health care program, and has consistently supported the positions of those who would hoard our national wealth for themselves.

George Bush and the current Republican administration have bled our country into a staggering national debt — a debt which is held in great part by the Chinese and Japanese governments.

This is perhaps beneficial in that our countries have a greater mutual interest in economic stability. But the huge debt takes money away from any progress on national health care, highway maintenance, educational programs, national parks and many other beneficial services.

To top off the administration’s policy, we are feeding a tar-baby of a war in Iraq that has not yet managed to secure even the contracts awarded to the vice president’s former friends at Halliburton.

Do the president’s supporters really believe that our nation’s interest is served by financing a war with money borrowed at interest from the Chinese and other foreign countries? And who makes all those shiny new rocket-propelled grenades that the Iraqi insurgents seem to never run out of?

Only outstanding statesmanship can lead toward a future of peace and prosperity for everyone in our country and indeed for the entire world. Someone has to clean up after the Grand Old Party, and that job is usually left to the Democrats. Vote for positive change. Vote for Kerry and Edwards!

Richard Siege

Southern Pines