Your view: Time for a change

As the presidential election gets closer and the TVs are covered up with campaign ads that try to sway voters to one side or the other, it is time for voters who are not yet decided to try to choose a candidate that best represents their interests and concerns.

As most voters are members of middle- to lower-class working families, we would probably all agree that good paying jobs, affordable health care, the means to send a child to college and the ability to purchase a home are some of the same things everyone desires. The last four years of the current administration has made it very difficult to achieve these goals.

Along with the cost of virtually everything skyrocketing, families have had to dig into their savings to keep up. It has become almost impossible to stay afloat financially. This is a direct effect of the current administration's policies.

As George W. Bush uses moral issues as a wedge to divide people and sway them to vote in his direction, people tend to forget that a war started under false pretenses has caused this nation to lose more than 1,000 young men and women. Instead of focusing on Afghanistan and bin Laden, these resources have been diverted to Iraq where there have been no links to terrorism and no weapons of mass destruction. Even though all citizens support our troops when they are in harm's way, an American citizen still has the right to question this war. Being concerned and questioning this war does not make a citizen unpatriotic.

The loss of good paying jobs to other countries because of greed resulting in families in the U.S. to suffer because of this is also sad. This is not fair policy.

Large tax cuts aimed toward the very rich have hurt the states and taken away funding from schools and varying other early childhood programs. The average taxpayer has had to pick up the burden by paying higher county and city taxes to provide the tax base these communities need to survive. This is not fair policy.

Drug costs have gone out of sight while the current administration has done nothing to stop it. This is not fair policy. Seniors have been forced to decide between medication and their next meal. This is not fair policy.

These are just a few of the things that have hurt many honest and hard working American citizens. The U.S. is the most advanced and richest nation on the face of the Earth. These type of things would not happen with fair and reasonable policies designed to help all Americans, not just the very rich and corporate America.

George W. Bush has had almost four years and it is obvious the people he really represents; not the majority of citizens out there trying to provide for their families in a battle that is getting more difficult every day.

How can a leader with real honest values support policies like these that have had such a devastating affect on people? It is clearly time for a change. These very people who are so affected have a chance to make this change on Nov. 2.

Erwin Porter,

New Madrid