LETTERS:

To the editor:

Isn't it amazing the way we try to pigeon-hole everything in politics? For example, liberal vs. conservative, Democrat vs. Republican, caring vs. extremist, with the list going on forever.

My own experience and core beliefs are not strictly aligned with any of these but, as with most Americans, probably would be a mixture of many.

One of our founding fathers was very concerned about a strong central government slowly by surely removing personal liberties. This, of course, would be Thomas Jefferson. Trusting in small units which at the time were farms, now more likely small towns and cities, was his idea of a strong democracy. Have we progressed to the point where we feel the necessity to depend upon and turn to this central government, as one journalist said, "from the cradle to the grave?"

I urge all Americans to examine the direction our form of government is apparently headed. I ask you: When the federal government was shut down, did your quality of life become the pits?

President Clinton and Senator Dole are simply point men espousing two directions for the country. Are we capable of taking care of ourselves, determining our own destinies and enjoying our lives that God has granted us without an ever-increasing litany of regulations and bureaucracy? I strongly believe that Thomas Jefferson would say, "Trust in the decency, honesty, integrity and hard-working ethics of the American people without all this micromanagement of government, and this country cannot help but grow stronger."

STEVE SHELTON

Cape Girardeau