Letter: Unqualified politicians making big decisions

Monday, Dec. 3, 2007 | 7:14 a.m.

Does anyone agree with me that there is a strange but unfair similarity when comparing two of the more volatile issues facing candidates and voters? I am referring to the war in Iraq and abortion.

(We use the word, abortion, of course, because "freedom of choice" sounds positive. We use the word war because we have thousands of our troops fighting and dying in Iraq who are wearing a uniform of the U.S. armed forces, while they are fighting against an enemy who wears no uniform or symbol that identifies him as either a civilian or an insurgent.)

Here is where the similarity comes into play. In both of these heated issues, final decisions are made and will be made not by the people whose lives are on the line, but primarily by older men in Washington who vote one way or another on outcomes that will make major differences for others.

Would any of those politicians be willing to allow a group of pregnant teenagers to decide on the future of the politicians' own careers? If, on some level, they thought that those young women did not have the wisdom nor the right to make that kind of call, why do they think they have the right to determine another person's future from their seat in Congress?

And how many of our elected officials in Washington have a personal connection to the troops in Iraq: a son, a daughter, a brother, sister, father or mother?

To be fair, we all do this. If an event in a state across the country does not affect us personally, we put the newspaper down and head for the mall, so to speak. But then, you and I are not elected officials who are supposed to be listening to the will of the people and carrying out their responsibilities accordingly while on the job.

Ken Anderson, Las Vegas