It has come up in other threads which harshly and easily criticize those who are entrusted with the functions of government that if we had only done things differently or elected the other guy, things would have been different. Well, yes and no. The truth of my statement remains, regardless of who is in power: When big things move, little things die. If the President were Gore, Bush or Zippy Pinhead (Cartoon character in the SF Chronicle) people will get hurt. People will die no matter what course our governemnt takes. It can't be avoided.

I'm saying that we all, my humble self included, need to be a little more temperate when taking our government and leaders to task. And I will always worry about the sanity of anyone who WANTS the job. There are some folks who genuinely want to help humanity, who are statesmen and really have the country's best interests at heart. I was unimpressed with Mr. Ford's coming to the Office of the Presidency as a means to burying the Nixon situation but I cannot fault the man for his statesmanship once he arrived at that high office. I was unimpressed and thuroughly disappointed with Mr. Carter's presidency but I really believe that his heart was in the right place. There are other who impress me as greedy and grasping. They are power seekers and while their actual performance in office may be adequate I cannot trust them. And individually they would use the office to enhance their own positions.