OUR VIEWS

Should spur peace effort

But as President Clinton said in Vietnam before these attacks, the continuing violence in the Mideast underlines the need for a settlement. The status quo means killing and terror will produce more of the same. Tuesday, Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian man near an Israeli settlement and hours later Palestinians straffed an Israeli car, seriously wounding the driver. Today, four more Palestinians were killed by Israeli soldiers.

There must come a day when children and adults are kept safe from terrorists not by the certainty of retaliation, but by a compromise agreement.

For Americans watching the horror from thousands of miles away, it is relatively easy to say this latest violence should spur even more intense efforts at peace.

For the Israelis and Palestinians, it is far more difficult to put aside the fear and outrage of the moment in order to achieve long-term security. In the absence of doing so, though, the horror will not abate.

Disenfranchising military?

Fair assessment? Not really.

It's true that the Democrats were sufficiently worried about the impact of overseas ballots to send out careful instructions about how they might be legally disqualified. It is true that most of those votes that were tossed out were probably from the military. And it is true that it was Democratic officials in Democratic counties who did most of the tossing.

But it is also the case that state law says the ballots must be postmarked no later than Election Day and that most of the tossed ballots were not postmarked.

The catch-22 for military voters is that no matter how dutiful they have been in trying to abide by all the rules, postmarks are outside their control.

Federal law allows overseas military personnel to mail qualified items free of cost — that is, with no postage. U.S. Postal Service rules require that, among other things, the free personal mail carry an APO or FPO postmark. Whether that also applies to absentee ballots is unclear because free postage for election materials is granted under another section of federal law. However, many military postal clerks clearly failed to apply the postmarks.

Many Florida officials either did not know or care about this problem. While it could be argued they should have, that is very different from saying they somehow plotted to disenfranchise military supporters of George W. Bush.

Hope in Peru

But while reviews of his administration admit as much, they note too that he disbanded the country's legislature and top court for a period and had thousands of people imprisoned with no evidence of criminality.
Lately, he has been caught up in a corruption scandal, and it became apparent he would have difficulty hanging on to power.

While visiting Japan this week, Fujimori resigned. A day later, he said he intended to stay in his ancestral homeland "for a long time," although he is not requesting political asylum. Fujimori's son currently lives in Japan as do his sister and brother-in-law, who is Peru's ambassador to the island nation.

For those who believe in human rights and democracy, Fujimori's departure from office is cause for great hope.

Much can still go wrong in Peru, of course. What is needed now is calm adherence to constitutional procedures leading up to an April election. That election was scheduled earlier this year when Fujimori said he would step down after a successor was chosen.

The military, it's reported, has vowed not to interfere if the law is obeyed. Two Fujimori allies in the line of succession stepped aside to allow Valentin Paniagua, a political moderate aligned with the opposition, to become interim president until a new president is sworn in July 28.

While the grand possibility is that Peru can have stability, liberty and democracy at the same time, none of this will happen without mature statesmanship.

YOUR VIEWS

Should we be humming a new tune?

Think pioneer America, early U.S. of A.,

A youthful democracy, researching a way

To make sure its citizens, so sparsely connected,

Would have a fair say in those being elected.

Folks in small states with smaller resources,

Sought ways to send word through their own local sources.

They selected "electors" to help tote with ease

Their votes for their leaders, and with this they were pleased.

Refrain: To help tote their views, to help tote their views,

They selected electors to help tote their views.

Fast forward — 2000, is it now time to say

Electoral voting, does it ring true today?

With media, email, debates, so much news,

Do we still need electors to help tote our views?

Are we locked in old skin, that we no longer know?

Our founders might say: "You reap what you sow".

Should Election 2000, provide a strong jolt?

No need for electors, let's tote our own vote!

Refrain: Let's tote our own vote, one person, one vote,

No need for electors, let's tote our own vote!

Barbara Royal
4320 Overlook Road

Up to Gore

The enduring hurt on the country is the fact that we must rely on Al Gore, like Bill Clinton before him, to surrender for the good of the country. Gore did concede once — before the frivilous charges took on mysterious powers of substance, which shows he is not made entirely of the lowly stuff of his boss. However, we Americans must hope that Gore will not surrender the presidency to George W. Bush, but surrender the demonizing rhetoric and frivilous recounts of selected areas of Florida.

If Gore wins the office in this process, roughly one half of the country will feel robbed. Moreover, if Bush wins the presidency after clawing his way through, another half of the country will not accept the results. Going further, if Bush were to stop fighting the frivilous charges and let the multiple counting of ballots go on, he will almost certainly lose and the same half of the country will feel robbed.

Therefore, it is up to Gore to call off his attacks on the process and accept the results. He must go another step and tell his supporters the same. This is the single action, in my view, that will preserve the legitimacy of the next president. Bush cannot, in any way, add to that value that has been lost already. As with Clinton two years ago, so the responsibility rests with Gore.

Dan Downey
2049 23rd Ave. S

Become interested

They now want to grow up and join the Mafia.

Armond "Si" Simmons
104 Wadsworth Lane
Pell City

Time well spent

As an Australian who respects and admires many aspects of your governmental system, allow me to assure your readers that the world will be much less impressed if legal jiggery-pokery or political machinations prevent the obvious will of the people from being expressed —especially in a country whose very founding raison d'etre was the supremacy of the will of the people.

A few more days taken now to establish the legitimacy of the coming presidency would be time well spent. If people are worried about how it makes America look, then pause for a moment and imagine what it would be like if Gov. Bush prevailed in a result that was morally questionable even if it was legally defensible, and for the rest of his presidency, every time something went wrong, his critics around the world chorused, "Well, he didn't really win anyway. ..."

Stephen Yolland
9 Gloucester Court
Templestowe Victoria 3106
Australia

LOOK BACK

50 years ago, Nov. 22, 1950

At least 20 Canadian soldiers are killed when troop train, carrying 350 artillerymen to Washington for training before movement to Korea, collides with passenger train high in Canadian Rockies near Vancouver, British Columbia.

25 years ago, Nov. 22, 1975

Former California Gov. Ronald Reagan announces candidacy for Republican presidential nomination. In Miami five hours later, he is jolted by assassination scare as man pulls toy gun and is wrestled to ground by Secret Service agents.

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