In her senior thesis at Princeton, Michele Obama, the wife of Barack Obama, stated that America was a nation founded on "crime and hatred." Moreover, she stated that whites in America were "ineradicably racist." The 1985 thesis, titled "Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community," was written under her maiden name, Michelle LaVaughn Robinson. Most alarming is Michele Obama's use of the terms "separationist" and "integrationist" when describing the views of black people.

Mrs. Obama clearly identifies herself with a "separationist" view of race.

I don't really care about one's position about the war in Iraq. I have always made my position clear, and I base it on the feedback I have gotten from troops who actually know what they are talking about, not stilted journalism from the right or the left. This piece, however, sheds light on an important fact.

It must be remembered that this election is not only about the war in Iraq. Just as with all wars this one will one day end. No, this is about who is going to lead this great nation of ours. It matters not to me that it is the candidate's wife who wrote these words. By all indications the Obamas have a solid and stable marriage for her to have such beliefs and have this stable of a marriage they must be acceptable to her husband. It brings to mind a quote from one of our truly great presidents, Abraham Lincoln, speaking in Springfield, Ill, on June 16, 1858: "A house divided against itself cannot stand," which paraphrases a statement by Jesus in the New Testament.

We can all hate President Bush as a man and for his policies, but it must be remembered that no president rules on his own. This is not a monarchy, but a democracy. It is the Senate and the Congress who pass the bills and approve the budget. Our Founding Fathers in their wisdom saw to this.

To believe that President Bush created this disaster all on his own is utter foolishness. Not so very many years ago Herbert Hoover was blamed for the Great Depression, but with the passage of time and cooler heads it has been proven that President Hoover was not the villain portrayed at the time, but rather a good and decent man. No, I am not saying that the same will hold true for President Bush; only time can see that judgment.

Our country is teetering on the precipice of annihilation. It did not reach this point in the last eight years, no it took much longer than that. It began when we lost our work ethic, our backbones, our pride, our voices and our decency. Years ago, we replaced the American dream with a lust for the almighty dollar that far too few can attain.

Have you ever stopped to consider that a man such as Abraham Lincoln could no longer become president of this nation? In today's America, he would be lost in the welfare system never to emerge as the great man he was.

One of our often over looked but greatest founding fathers, Alexander Hamilton, fought tooth and nail against Thomas Jefferson to make this both an agrarian and industrial nation; Jefferson wanting it to be only an agrarian society. Hamilton was wise enough to know that no nation can be secure if we must go to the enemy for our bullets.

Now big business wants us to believe that we can survive as a service-based economy, all the while knowing the impossibility of this foolishness and at the same time farming even these jobs overseas.

If this were not enough, we are now seriously considering electing a president whose wife espouses a nation divided. We must each seriously consider this before making a decision on who we vote for this coming election. Sadly, I do not believe either candidate is what this nation needs at this time, but I for one am going to vote for the lesser of the two evils.

Having said all this, I am still encouraging everyone to vote. It is what our young men and women are shedding their blood for. Do not dishonor them by allowing apathy to keep you away from the polls and then write to your senators and congressmen and demand that they fix all the wrongs of this great land so that it will be around for another 100 years -- starting with taking us from a welfare state back to the hard-working, self-reliant nation we once were.

Be part of the silent majority no more.

Janice M. Koshiol

314 W. 12th