We've had our Presidential debates and even one for

We've had our Presidential debates and

even one for the "vying veeps.'' We've seen the television commercials. We’ve watched percentages change in the various polls. We've heard opinion "molders" and authoritative "news anchors" and the pack of prominent "pundits". It's time for Decision 2000.

We’ve read some editorials, both pro and con, and local letters to our editor. We've been motivated to write one of our own.

My first personal presidential votes were cast in 1940 and 1944, both times for Franklin Delano Roosevelt. I wasn’t tied to a particular political party, but I knew who I wanted to be the President of the United States of America. That was my country, the good old USA.

I vividly recall the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. It was a shock and I was greatly saddened. He was my Commander-inChief. I was then a combat engineer company commander in the village of Dinant, Belgium, near the Ardennes Forest, shortly .after the Battle of the Bulge. I had taken a solemn oath to defend our country against all enemies, foreign and domestic. We knew who the enemy was, then. Today, we re not all that sure. Is the greater threat to our nation foreign or domestic?

A lot has happened to our beloved country since those historic times. It's not all been good. Some of the media would have us believe that this election 2000 is not really very important. A recent editorial in the powerful N.Y. Times was entitled "The Bland Leading the Bland". However, I have come to believe that it's a matter of life and death. It's not just a matter of the "quality of life" or choosing a "life style". It's a matter of re-discovering our true purpose in life. We seem to have lost our traditional "reverence for life”.

That's not something that can be decided for us, by focus groups or "targeted", manipulated polls. It's about renewing faith and trust in the one source of all life. We used to know