Dave Codrea has it exactly right. The writer he referred to, if genuine, is not just na�ve, he is too thin-skinned to be in any rough and tumble business, especially the assassin business. If Codrea�s sarcasm �rubbed him the wrong way,� too bad. Poor baby. And don�t expect any of �the people� to snipe a leader gone awry. Some nut case maybe, but the problem is in the math: too few snipers and too many gone awry. We don�t need snipers, we need more warriors. More attention to the ballot box means less need for the bullet box. The writer has become part of the problem and seems to have just awakened after wasting much of a lifetime worrying about a pennant race, a super bowl, the Emmys, being kidnapped by aliens, or whether Elvis lives. He should go back to nursing his six-pack. The �greatest generation� that saved our butts during WW II spawned the worst generation of the 60s and 70s. The writer may belong in the latter category.

The present situation is largely the result of at least 50 years of increasing leftist influence over government schools. John Dewey, the �father of American education,� deserves credit for much of this mess: everything is �relative,� there is no right or wrong, no absolutes, just your opinion vs. mine. Leftists control the curricula, the textbooks. A significant percentage of three generations have had their gray matter scrambled by absorbing this philosophy, including teachers, ministers, lawyers, judges and politicians. The present generation seems to have no basis for defining the problem. This situation was not an overnight development. It has become our culture. Correction will be a long-term project � much longer than any two terms in the White House.

It would seem that it is not the teaching of religious principles in schools that liberals abhor. Christianity takes the heat because it is the predominant religion in the U. S., but Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc., would be just as objectionable because religions are founded on absolutes which fly in the face of relativism. The "go, no-go" rules of behavior in the Ten Commandments, the validity of which have been confirmed over many centuries, are considered obstacles to "progress." That was then � this is now. The Bill of Rights, and especially the 2nd Amendment, are regarded with the same contempt when they are described as �God-given rights� and because they tend to obstruct the leftist agenda. Some consider our Constitution to be irrelevant. It was devised by �dead white men.� Cemeteries are filled with bodies of those who died to preserve our hard-won liberties. Most of those casualties are dead white men. Lately we have done much to dishonor their sacrifice.

What is most worrisome at this time is that at least 40% of the likely voters would support dumping the Constitution in favor of socialism, and at least an additional 10% are undecided. And now it appears that soccer moms have joined this herd based on Al�s big smooch. Kinda spooky? Government schools have been successful.

The present occupant of the White House was re-elected in 1996 because less than half of the voters turned out. And he received less than half of that vote � 24.12% - but it was more than his nearest competitor so he got his �mandate� by default. Many sit out elections because they see little real difference between one candidate and another so there is no point in supporting the lesser of two evils. The lesser of two evils is still evil. Ronald Reagan was described as such in 1980. In 1992 the presence of the least of three evils awarded the White House to the most evil. Which brings us to the condition we find ourselves in right now. So it behooves each of us to get up from the sofa, turn off the TV, and vote on November 7. To do otherwise invites the specter of snipers stalking the awry by moonlight.