Protecting health, environment

To the editor:

Currently 15 percent of all babies born in the United States have been exposed in their mothers' wombs to dangerous levels of mercury, a known cause of mental retardation. One would think that someone who professes to care about the unborn would do everything possible to protect the health of mother and child.

Yet because of the Bush administration's desire to enrich its corporate contributors, coal-fired power plants and other industrial facilities will be allowed to continue to poison our air and water with this toxic substance.

The evidence shows that the administration does not seem to be much more pro-life once babies have been born, given the increasing numbers of children suffering from asthma caused by polluted air. And the failure of Congress to fully fund No Child Left Behind guarantees that many of the children most in need of assistance will indeed be left behind, further increasing the shameful gap between our richest and poorest citizens.

With the ballooning of the budget deficit and the administration's repudiation of environmental protections based on sound science, future generations will be made to pay for the current neglect of sound fiscal and environmental policies.

In the upcoming election all voters should ask themselves what kind of country they want their children and their children's children to inherit. John Kerry has consistently supported laws that protect the natural environment and the health of all our citizens. Anyone who thinks that Bush is actually pro-life should think again.

ROBERT ZELLER, Cape Girardeau