Will the real John Balentine please stand up? I wondered how long it would take for Balentine to surface with the election around the corner. I’m sure that he has been just chafing at the bit to get his opinion out there.

This new approach of my old friend John, his “I don’t really care who you vote for” ploy is so transparent. Of course you care, John. Anyone who knows Balentine knows that a stauncher Republican doesn’t exist.

It’s so typical of Republican Party members to throw out words like “security” and “safety.” Do you really believe that the citizens of the United States feel safer or more secure with the war in its fifth year? Wasn’t this war supposed to be “shock and awe?”

Wasn’t it supposed to be over in days? Just go in and hit and back out again? Instead we are entrenched in a war that is costing us trillions of dollars, lost lives of our servicemen and women, drained resources and infastructure failing all around us, and McCain wanting to keep us there for many many years. Didn’t he say 100? Does this make you feel safer John?

Also for all of you on the Christian Right out there, John included, please explain this to me. Did God really say “God Bless America, but it’s okay to kill as many Iraqis as you want, as well as Afghanis?” Where do you people get this? What about the innocent men, women and children who were killed in that country? Do you really believe that it’s okay to erroneously invade another country and call it justifiable? What is wrong with this picture? Does this make you feel safer?

I think that John Balentine has this mixed up a bit. I have never seen Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs distorted in such an interesting way. Doesn’t safety mean being able to pay to support yourself and your family with a secure job?

We’ve lost 700,000 jobs this year. Doesn’t it mean having health care to take care of yourself and your family if you get ill or need medical care? What about holding on to your home? Wouldn’t that make you feel more secure. That is if you only own one, as most people do, and not nine, like McCain? Doesn’t it mean not seeing your savings disappear when the stock market plunges only to have to be bailed out by the government? I believe that’s on Maslow’s second step in the pyramid.

Please John, tell me again how voting for McCain will give you safety and security and voting for Obama will be a luxury like sitting around the house and eating bon bons and feeding your ego. Surely you must have failed psychology 101 to put that kind of a spin on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

Maslow’s final step, number five is lack of prejudice (that’s in reference to the comment “African American with the diverse ethnic background.” Hummm. Also on the fifth step are things like acceptance of facts, something that the Republicans have had difficulty with – like not connecting the war in Iraq with 911; morality – like invading another country without just cause; and problem solving, which there has been very little of for the last eight years, and seeing the economy as secure.

Please, John Balentine, explain to me again how voting for McCain will give me a sense of security and voting for Obama will massage my ego. I really need to know this before I rush to the polls and vote for Obama.

Elizabeth Perry

Standish