Reasons for change in Congress

To the editor:

When considering candidates in the fall federal election, voters should avoid returning a Bush rubber stamp unless they want to endorse the:

* Invasion of Iraq creating a terrorist haven where none previously existed.

* 2,500 American deaths, thousands of irrecoverably maimed Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilian deaths (more than caused by dictator Hussein) resulting from the Iraq debacle.

* Administration that remains disconnected with events in Iraq and unable to resolve the disastrous civil war it generated.

* Destruction of environmental protections that serve all Americans and took decades to develop.

* Culture of congressional corruption that defends representatives engaged in illegal behavior rather than drums them out of office.

* Rejection or suppression of scientific evidence when it denies Bush policy.

Support:

* Increased government and its interference in the lives of Americans.

* Increased national debt that future generations will have to pay off,.

* Illegal abuse of unconvicted prisoners that destroys this nation's reputation around the world as a defender of freedom, liberty and justice.

* Redistributing wealth from lower and middle income to affluent Americans.

* Destruction of the health-care system.

Reject: The U.S. Constitution, the rule of law and our freedom and liberty -- the essence of this great nation.

It is impossible for anyone with social justice, human health or environmental concerns to support retaining a Republican Congress. It should be as difficult for anyone with genuine conservative or pro-life principles.

ALAN R.P. JOURNET, Cape Girardeau