The erosion of civil rights and access to health care, the loss of jobs that pay a living wage, a government in a perpetual state of war and the rise of a powerful upper class that controls our future with campaign contributions, these things will bring our nation founded on equality and freedom to its knees.

We need a change. Most of the candidates of the Democratic Party support the status quo. Even the doctor, Howard Dean, does not support a single-payer health care system. What are we afraid of?

Together we can make a successful response to a national crises. We are able, now, to join together successfully, for a national defense, a universal education system, social security, our highway system and many other important government programs.

I am appealing to my fellow Mainers to have a realistic look at the candidacy of Dennis Kucinich. This honest man stands unequivocally for a single-payer, not-for-profit health care plan, publicly funded elections, Social Security at age 65, guaranteed education, a national defense that has peace as its goal, not a perpetual state of war, the protection of American jobs, a woman’s reproductive privacy, the environment and civil rights.

For this great nation to fail for the sake of a Hummer in the driveway or the numbers in someone’s bank account is a tragedy of unimaginable scale. Please, for the sake of our country, support Dennis Kucinich.

Peter L Mc Farland, Jefferson