Letter: America has been diminished a third time

Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2001 | 9:56 a.m.

Our country continues to diminish. We are not what we once were -- an example for the entire world to emulate.

For example, I went to Vietnam for two reasons: I felt it was my turn to serve, and to help the South Vietnamese secure the freedoms we enjoy.

It didn't take long for me to realize that, with a 50 percent desertion rate in the South Vietnamese army, those who we were fighting for didn't care what form of government they had. We weren't fighting for their freedom; we were embroiled in another country's civil war.

Now I realize that our country that I thought existed was merely a mirage.

What has happened in this election season shows that when we purposely refuse to count all the votes cast, we really don't have all the freedom that we thought we once enjoyed.

Does anyone in his or her right mind believe that had the roles been reversed, George W. Bush in Al Gore's place, that the Republican-dominated Supreme Court of the United States would have ruled the same way? No way! The court, like everything else in this country, has been politicized.

In my lifetime this country has been severely diminished three times: the assassination of John Kennedy, the Vietnam War and the 2000 U.S. Supreme Court election rulings.

These three events will continue to reverberate.

TONY CANNELLA