Like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I've had a dream that this nation had grown to a point that we could look beyond skin color, beyond religious differences, beyond sexual orientation and vote for the most qualified person, be they male or female to lead this country back to a position of world leadership. The Sept. 10 commentary, "Racism and the privacy of voting," taken from The Philadelphia Inquirer, says it all.

We are still collectively unenlightened, apathetic racist pigs! A large majority of people in this country will not speak their minds, but dance around their true feelings, calling Barack Obama an elitist, inexperienced or too young. They'll never admit it's because he's black, and they're not ready to give a black man the highest position of leadership in the land. But they are ready to vote for a man too old for that stressful office.


McCain's failing grade

Conservation-minded voters should not allow themselves to be fooled by John McCain's rhetoric. One of the fastest ways to reduce the use of foreign oil is to increase fuel-efficiency standards in America's automobiles. McCain voted against fuel-efficiency increases in 2003 and 2005. He missed the vote in 2007. League of Conservation Voters gives him a 0 percent voting record for 2007. He has a lifetime LCV record of only 26 percent.

Refusing to accept that man-made greenhouse gas pollution from oil and coal is causing global warming, the Republican platform says the matter is subject to "on-going scientific research." McCain is turning into another George W. Bush. VP pick Sarah Palin also said she doubts that global warming is caused by human activity. McCain has cast 10 votes against clean water, including against drinking-water protection and enforcement, controlling microbes in water, and funds for water pollution control.


No storm damage

The Sept. 6 letter, "Off-shore drilling and storms don't mix" really caught my attention because I had just read a lengthy column about energy and environment in a nationally distributed science journal.

The letter states that U.S. Gulf Coast hurricanes Katrina and Rita were devastating natural disasters. However, the greatest environmental story of the decade, in terms of oil and gas, was the one that followed Katrina and Rita. No major spills and leaks from offshore operations — the environmental disaster that wasn't! Too bad major media outlets did not see fit to run that story.

A healthy U. S. and global economy allows for substantial investments in our environment. And a healthy economy requires energy. Today we have potential oil and gas resources off every U.S. coast — Arctic, Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf.

The outdated drilling moratorium that prevents development of these resources comes from a false pretense that drilling hurts the environment. We need to correct the mistaken polices that don't let us develop our own fossil energy resources. We need these resources to build a stable economic bridge to our alternate-energy future.


A cuckoo's nest

I'm an independent willing to listen to any policy that might solve a problem. But this last Republican National Convention — my-way-or-the-highway Christianity in a land founded on separation of church and state? Jingoism in a global society? "Drill baby, drill," instead of a new industry based on renewable and locally controllable energy? Lethal weapons as the principal symbol of individual freedom and international diplomacy? This isn't just wrong. This is nuts.


Came to pass

Although I've felt in my gut that the result of this 2008 presidential election will be a real wild card, it never occurred to me that someone even more whacko than Bush & Co. would appear in the running.

How did this Sarah Palin person — with zero credentials and even fewer leadership criteria — just "happen" to win the election for governor of Alaska, not to mention being chosen as McCain's running mate? Is it possible that someone on The New Mexican staff could investigate this phenomenon, including the part that Karl Rove might be playing in it?

Back in 2000, just prior to the Bush-Gore election, a group of South American shamans were asked who they hoped would win. Their answer was Bush; the same result was inevitable no matter who won, they said, but with Bush, it would come about that much sooner. Apparently, this is what we're now experiencing.


Road to hell

As a person born and raised in Nazi Germany, watching the Republican National Convention last week made me almost sick to my stomach. Were the Germans to display this kind of unabashed nationalism, the whole world would be pointing fingers saying, "See, the old Nazis are back!"

It would create an international scandal.

After Germany lost the war, the first verse had to be taken out of the national anthem, and rightly so because it stated, "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles" (Germany, Germany above all else). This was exactly the spirit displayed at the RNC.

But apparently, if one calls it "patriotism," instead of nationalism, and sugarcoats the more sinister aspects of the message with funny hats and balloons — and if it happens in America instead of in Germany — it's all right. Don't the nationalists in this country see where this is headed?


Man of vision

Barack Obama is an intellectual heavyweight who possesses grace and dignity. He maintains high ethical standards by keeping his campaign out of the gutter, unlike the Republicans. As a courageous young man he served his country by working in an economically depressed community. He taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago. He is a man of vision and has gained the respect of leaders and ordinary people around the world.

Unlike Obama, the Republicans can't talk about issues, and they are afraid to acknowledge the fine qualities of their opponent. They nominated an ethical lightweight who is supported by the most nasty, greedy and cynical lobbyist/political operatives our country has ever seen. He is running with a woman who talks incessantly about "fighting and guns and war and God," but in her cowardly way supports shooting wolves from a helicopter.