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When you begin to wonder how you will pay for your child's college education in the face of rising tuition and cuts in student loan programs, an education that represents the best hope for avoiding rising competition from cheap foreign labor; when the forests are falling and the fish can't be eaten; when you realize no child's future has been left unmortgaged; when health care costs continue to soar and Social Security diminishes; when you notice the government is unwilling to invest in retraining and other programs to help the unemployed; when you are finished fixing gays and cussing and you realize how many other important societal issues have been neglected; when the air you breathe and the water you drink are further fouled; when your freedoms are curtailed and government's eyes begin to intrude; when deep cuts in federal spending accelerate the erosion of the infrastructure so vital to our economy, as payments for classroom materials, fees to visit parks and so on increase; when state and local taxes rise to combat deficits made far worse by falling federal support; when big business comes to town putting your own small-business job at risk and you begin to wonder if you are truly better off overall - as you begin to realize how seriously you were misled on these and so many other issues, the Democratic Party will welcome you with open arms.

MARK THOMA

[Letter to the editor of the Register Guard on 11/29/2004]