To the editor:

I would like to commend Bill Graveman for his article regarding the importance of voter education before the general election. I couldn’t agree more that every voter should look past the advertising to see where the candidates and their parties stand. Where I find fault with Mr. Graveman’s article is that it appears that he has fallen prey to the same advertising he suggests we look past. His general description of the candidates is exactly what the president and his party would like us to believe. That is, the president has “moderately conservative views” and John Kerry is a “liberal northeasterner.”

The Republican convention rolled out moderate speakers to obscure the fact that the Republican platform and the president are the most conservative in modern history. The Republican platform has left many moderate Republicans shaking their heads and most conservatives jumping for joy. The president’s convention speech moved to the middle again with language reminiscent of his “compassionate conservative” message of the 2000 election. A look at the president’s tenure illustrates that the president has repeatedly left the middle in order to satisfy his base and his campaign contributors. Such initiatives with misleading names such as “healthy forests” which opens logging in already healthy forests, “clear skies” which undercuts the Clean Air Act and allows more air pollution, or, most recently, his unwillingness to put his weight behind the extension of the assault weapons ban. More generally, the president’s stances on abortion, stem cell research and his willingness to amend the Constitution to discriminate against homosexuals are anything but moderately conservative. These are arguably legitimate positions but let us call them what they are, conservative.

There is no argument that Mr. Kerry is more liberal than President Bush. However, making the statement that he is “largely liberal” while stating that the president is “moderately conservative” is a regurgitation of campaign advertising rather than a look past the advertising.

Again, I applaud Mr. Graveman’s request that we educate ourselves before we vote. His article would have been much better if he had left out the paragraph that generalized the candidates.

Dan Breedlove,

Tonganoxie.

Questions about EMS

To the editor:

Enough is enough.

After months of listening to the way emergency services are dispatched, I feel the time has come for some explaining of how and why ambulances are dispatched. It seems that Leavenworth city is priority one, and IF there is one available, maybe an ambulance will be dispatched to the other three-fourths of the county.

Time and again, most of the county is without service because of some “policy” requiring ample coverage of Leavenworth city. Why? I feel a full accounting of EMS policy and theory must be made available so the county citizens can be made aware of how their tax dollars are being spent and whether or not they will have timely ambulance service. We all pay taxes, and should have the same services available to us.

Right now that is not happening.

Richard Koleber,

McLouth.