How did we finally get to this place? Over the last several decades, we have gradually allowed the far right to gain more and more control over our political system. The process culminated in November of 2000 with the election of a president who claimed to be a "compassionate" conservative. This is compassion?

Medical science is on the verge of making great breakthroughs in the treatment of Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Diabetes, and spinal cord injuries. The possibilities of stem cell research and the cloning of organs seem to be unlimited. Yet the right wing has convinced congress to end these programs. It is not a fear of the results that have caused them to do this. It is strictly a political attempt to declare the fetus a human being. This is all part of the political effort to outlaw abortion. That is their only agenda. They have more compassion for a minute lump of cells than for millions of human beings who must suffer with these terrible illnesses.

Our economy is in shambles. People are out of work. Millions have lost the major part of their retirement portfolios. Much of this is because of a tax cut for the rich. Again the compassion is misplaced. The compassion is not for the poor, but for the rich. A reverse "Robin Hood," perhaps? Who was it that called trickle-down economics Voodoo economics? Now his son has endorsed that same Voodoo economics.

In the name of homeland security, the administration introduced "The Patriot Act" at a time of national crisis. This act has stripped away many of the rights of the citizens of the United States. Now John Ashcroft wants to trick congress into passing Patriot II, which will allow the government to label any one of us as an enemy of the government and to make us liable to search and seizure without apparent cause. Any one of us can be arrested and thrown into prison without the rights that we have always known under our constitution.

Now we face the ultimate act of "compassion." In the name of making the United States the biggest bully on the planet, thousands of our children will die in combat, many more thousands of innocent Iraqi citizens will die, our old alliances with our friends will be forever broken, our "good will" will be lost in the dust of a hell perpetrated by our "compassionate" president, and his right-wing cohorts. May God have mercy on our souls.

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the far right has promoted the idea that the United States of America must exercise its military might to establish itself as the one and only world leader. The United Nations be damned. They will finally have their way, and the cost of this exercise is astronomical. Personally, I see no better way to destroy our democracy than by taking the path that has been chosen by this administration.

We can no longer afford this "compassion." It is time that the American people wake up and take back our country from these right-wing fascists. I am sad and I am angry. Our former president was impeached because he lied abut a personal sexual encounter. How much more serious is it for our present administration to lie to us about the state of our world? My word to the Democrats is, "Stand up and be counted." I am a liberal and I am proud of it.