LETTERS: UNINFORMED VOTERS TO MAKE KEY DECISIONS

To the editor:

I attempted to refrain from writing this letter because I try not to get into political issues, but this time I just cannot help it. I know that Southeast Missouri is traditionally a conservative area, but I know there is some dissent to that notion. I cannot even bring myself to read the comments in the Opinion page Speak Out section because all they do is further my belief that there are way too many uneducated people in this area placing way too many uneducated votes.

Recently I flipped through the channels and could not help but come across the debates on rerun. What really amazed me about the debate was not anything that the candidates said but that there are (a) actually people who think that the vice president won and (b) actually people who would vote for Vice President Al Gore.

I am a 21-year-old soon-to-be college graduate, and I find it appalling that my knowledge of politics far surpasses most everyone around me. I find it disgusting that there will be people in voting booths this November who have no knowledge whatsoever of the issues and are going to vote for Gore. The vice president made no valid claims in the debate, and everything he attempted to attack Gov. George W. Bush with was shot down with ease using factual information and substantial numeric figures. Gore challenged Bush to show him numbers, which Bush readily supplied. Bush asked Gore to defend his leasing out of the Lincoln bedroom and his visitation of a Buddhist temple, which Gore responded to with more of his fuzzy math.

I suppose this letter is a plea to whoever reads it: Please let us end this season of cynicism. I hear about actors saying that they will leave the country if Bush becomes the next president of the United States. I hope they leave beforehand so there will be fewer people voting for Gore. We owe it to ourselves to become educated on the issues and go to the polls. We live under a blanket of freedom that we take for granted, and we owe it to ourselves and our fellow Americans to make the correct decision come November.

CARSON V. HEADY

Cape Girardeau