Hypocrisy shown on critical issues

To the editor:

The right-wing hypocrites are back. During the election they tried to convince voters that they are against abortion and gay marriage, when the reality is they just use these issues to divide the nation and are not really concerned about either. Rather, their goal was to persuade voters to elect them to office so they could continue the campaign of bankrupting the nation while giving tax breaks to the wealthy and destroying the social, health and environmental programs that decades of progressive Democrats and Republicans have set in place.

This time they plan to make political hay at the expense of a woman who is unable to defend herself. These politicians voted against the very Medicaid that supported Terri Schiavo through years of need. They also voted to restrict lawsuits against negligent corporations of the very kind that provided funds enabling Schiavo's family to keep her alive. Now, solely for political gain, they wish to prolong the life of this individual whom the courts have already determined wished not to be subjected to exactly the kind of indignity they wish to impose upon her.

These politicians would destroy the very programs that support babies they insist be born and patients who need health care, but they jump at the chance to take political advantage of the suffering of individuals and families needing the support programs they wish to eliminate. This form of contemptible hypocrisy is neither an American value nor a value I share.

EMMA L. FRANKLIN, Cape Girardeau