To the editor:

Today is a sad day for America! I am utterly disappointed in the direction this supposed free country is going. The reasons behind the Bush voters were: “he takes a stand for what he believes” even though that is killing innocent children in illegitimate wars; “he is a Christian” even though that excludes Muslims, Jews and other religions; “he is the best guy to fight the war on terror” even though he’s fighting a war unrelated to terrorism.

So Bush ran four years ago as a “compassionate conservative” vowing to unite the country. Then he did just the opposite, taking the country in a radically wrong direction and deeply dividing it. Now, voters turn out in record numbers (many of them young) voting him in a second term based on his far-right agenda. But that is not the only reason.

His campaign was almost solely distorting John Kerry’s image with blatant lies. This is how he got elected. So the American people (the voters anyway) have spoken. Does that make it right? Does that give Bush the mandate to implement such personally restricting policy even though he represents only slightly half of the voting population? It does because he has the powerful Republican Congress to support him.

Consequently, we have taken a large step backward in the Supreme Court, Social Security, women’s right to privacy (also Supreme Court), progress on equal (gay) rights, separation of church and state, jobs, health care, education, etc.

Kristi Cole,

Lawrence