Dear George:

When I was a child - I truly don't remember how old - I wrote my first poem. It was as short as I was, and went: "To be inarticulate is a curse/ I can't think of anything worse." But now, George, we have just reelected a president whose calling card is engraved: "Sorely inarticulate/ borderline illiterate."

So tell me, what gives with the American voter? Are we now being held hostage to a fascination with ye olde tyme religion, and voting on that basis? Are we, as a nation, mixing politics with churchiness to the point where "morality," faith-based everything and "family values" are supplanting such constants as inequality, poverty, lack of health care, soaring deficits, crumbling roads and failing schools [as primary concerns]? And is respect for the examined life being replaced with a reverance for the NASCAR mentality?

Just asking. Just wondering. Just pondering the next four years, and their potential for making the last ones seem benign in comparison. Where will we launch our next incursion? Will one foreign nation friendly to our country be left standing by 2008? What will be the cumulative cost, in human and monetary treasure, by the time the next presidential election kicks off?

When I was a child, I thought as a child. How innocent I was, back then, to curse not finding the right word, instead of cursing the darkness of those who confuse fundamentalism with compassion, and prayer with participation in the furtherance of social justice, fiscal sanity, a true reverance for life, and civil liberties?

Again, George, just asking ...

Barbara Rich, Charlottesville, Virginia, November 3, 2004