To the editor:

In considering whether to retain any current incumbent in office, one issue seems especially important to me during these rather trying times in which many of our civil rights seem to be slipping away. Do we want a person to represent us who is concerned with supporting the rule of law with appropriate checks and balances between the three branches of government? For me, the answer is a resounding yes!

Therefore, prior to voting, it seems imperative to determine whether the congressional representatives up for re-election voted for the “torture compromise legislation” recently passed by Congress. If so, it does not appear that such representatives are the ones that a democratic society would wish to retain. This legislation allows the U.S. president to decide what constitutes torture (and possibly redefine the Geneva Conventions guidelines in the process), to keep prisoners, labeled “enemy combatants” or “terrorists,” including U.S. citizens who may have unwittingly supported a terrorist organization, confined for years without due process, and to deny habeas corpus (appeal incarceration to the courts). Such legislation seems inconsistent with the America that was once a shining beacon of justice and equality for all.

Instead of such candidates, let’s vote for representatives who are concerned with equal rights for all, as framed by the Constitution, rather than what Mr. Bush may “feel is right in his gut,” or what the “religious right” may decide is right for the rest of us based on their religious views.

Robert A. Duver,

Lawrence