I am reminded of Abraham Lincoln and Edmund Muskie when I see John Kerry.

Lincoln suffered from melancholia so severe that his eyes were affected. He was criticized and hated by some, enough hate to be killed.

I remember reading that when Muskie went to the Senate, he was advised by Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson “to get along you must go along.” Muskie refused. Yet he made a great difference in the lives of the people of Maine and the United States.

Muskie’s wife, like Teresa Heinz Kerry, spoke her mind also. Teresa Heinz Kerry reminds me of Jackie Kennedy’s gift for language in her ability to speak five languages. I think Teresa Heinz Kerry and Elizabeth Edwards will be great assets to our country, as much as Jackie Kennedy and Hillary Clinton.

Joanna Walsh-Ward, Lewiston