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Edited on Thu Aug-12-04 10:22 AM by cynatnite
This appeared in the Kingsport Times paper. I didn't know it until my son's teacher told me this morning. She liked it and completely agreed. Needless to say I was thrilled. It's online, but in the actual paper, the heading 'Criticism of Kerry Misleading' was right at the top in bold black letters.
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The letter "Democrats not on God's Side'' was misleading. Kerry's voting record has been blown out of proportion. The Republicans have used the line that Kerry voted against much needed equipment for our troops. Their data comes from three votes. Two of these votes were not technically on defense appropriations, but were on House-Senate conference committee reports for defense appropriation bills. If a person were to read this, they would find the entire governmental expenditures for a fiscal year. This encompasses thousands of items from weapons, to salaries, personnel expenses, medical research and a whole host of others. Members of Congress vote yes or no on the entire bill and don't get to pick and choose what items they want and don't want.
One item in particular involved the Apache helicopter program, which came from a previous Republican administration. Cheney testified in front of the House Armed Services Committee in August 1989 that the money for this and two other programs was not there and recommended this program be cancelled two years out. This testimony occurred over six years before Kerry voted to supposedly "kill'' the AH-64.
I also want to speak to the statement about the Democrats being on God's side, which comes from Kerry's acceptance speech.
The Bible does not favor a political party. I think I'd be fairly close in saying that God does not favor a political party either. God looks at the hearts of people and not their political affiliation. Abortion is one of the most divisive issues in this country and using it to advocate what "side'' God is on is highly offensive.
While I do believe that God does not approve the shedding of innocent blood, I believe that also includes innocent civilians caught in this horrible war. I say horrible, because even for all we're trying to do, war is horrible because of the human costs in lives. No matter what side of this issue a person stands on, they cannot deny that war has an obscene nature to it.
Kingsport
Cyn:)
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