Not only have I read the article, but I have downloaded it and printed it out. It's an excellent article and it bears repeated reading. Thank you for referring us to it, and if others have not read it, I highly recommend that they do. It's quite long, but it's well worth it. It comes very close to reflecting my own beliefs and it outlines the kind of world I would very much like to see.

But there are a few problems.

Every time I pick the article up to re-read passages of it, my immediate response to much of what it says is "Yes, exactly!" It paints a shining picture of what the world could be and should be. And then . . . I hear the strains of the Beatles singing "All You Need is Love." Well, I've been here before, GUEST. I wasn't just a kid during the Sixties, I was an adult. I'm familiar with the route.

I'm not so cynical that I believe this sort of world could not actually come about. However, I am not so naïve as to think that it is something, that can happen overnight, no matter who gets elected in November. And it's going to take a huge change in the thinking of a lot of people, and that change is definitely not going to happen between now and November. It's very idealistic. So? I'm very idealistic. In the precinct caucus I attended, although I knew full well that Kucinich didn't have much chance of being elected (for a whole list of reasons I could outline), he did come the closest to reflecting my own ideals, so I voted for him. You can't fault me for not following my ideals. Now, I wait to see what happens. After the Democratic Convention, I will be presented with a candidate who will run against Bush. Probably Kerry. I will vote for him.

I will not vote for Nader because 1) although I admire his work very much and have done so for years, I don't really think he would make an effective president; and 2) by voting for a candidate that I'm sure can't win, I would be throwing away a vote for Kerry, who would make an effective president and who could win. And in the wild and crazy possibility that Nader did win, I still don't think he'd make a very good president. He's most effective being a gadfly on the outside.

There is no one on the docket or even on the horizon that reflects the ideals outlined in the Tikkun article. Not even Ralph Nader. If any of that is ever to happen (and I passionately hope that it does, and soon), the Bush administration is the major block. One must do the best one can, so I will vote for the Democratic candidate.

"All you need is love?" The Beatles were wrong. You need brains, too.

So don't give me any guff about not having thought the matter over pretty damned thoroughly.

Don Firth