&letterheadWhen pen hits paper

TO THE EDITOR: Time to seat a new president in the Oval Office. Any person that sits in that seat that has the ability to take pen in hand and send brave Americans to face death in foreign lands should have to be a veteran.

I'm sure having been there that much thought will happen before the pen strikes the paper.

Frank Pabst

Plattsburgh

&letterheadLet voice be heard

TO THE EDITOR: Our forefathers fought "taxation without representation" to found this nation. Are you represented?

Today, some complain they're not, since our (and their) government doesn't always obey them. In "protest," they "boycott" elections to "teach government a lesson." Does it "sit up and take notice?" Can it? Think about it.

Office holders only really know they were elected by people agreeing with them. Registered Democrats and independents outnumber Republicans, even around here. Polls show we can win this year! Historically though, Republicans have tended to show up more loyally to vote. Extending this: when enough non-Republicans stay home, Republicans win, though narrowly. That practically guarantees decision-making by a minority of potential voters! Their strategies involved, less "Getting out the vote" than "Keeping down the (total) vote."; it has ranged from: ridiculing office-seekers for favoring middle-class majorities, through interfering with their voting, down to outright intimidation. It has worked.

In 1994, tired after working that cold gray November off-year election Tuesday, a majority of registered, eligible voters stayed home. About 39 percent of the total voter pool decided that close election. Of all who could have voted, 20 percent made the winning decision. Was that democratic?

Republicans won, but that Congress represented one-fifth of us. It valiantly tried representing the non-participants, but how could it know? How can they know what you want, without you telling them? Who can represent non-voting voters?

For representation, be sure and vote. You still may not get absolutely everything you want, but more than by staying away. Neither candidate may be perfect; who is? But surely they're not equally imperfect. How can democratic choices be, usually, better than the greater of two partial goods? Clear, simple choices seldom exist in real life, but choices we don't make are made for us.

Give America a break. Take that break and vote.

David E. Manwell

Beekmantown