Letters to the Editor10/23/1998
Big issues at stake in November voteEditor:Polls report apathy among voters blamed partly on President Clinton. Should we vote on Nov. 3? Although President Clinton's White House escapades have been called reprehensible and immoral, what he did was no different than most presidents before him. But President Clinton, unlike previous presidents, was entrapped by Kenneth Starr and his right-wing associates using spy techniques and put on display before the entire world in an effort to destroy him. This was used only because no criminal activity could be proven in connection with the original subjects of the independent counsel's investigation: Whitewater, travelgate, filegate, Vince Foster's suicide, Rose Hill law firm. The consequences of this and the subsequent impeachment effort by a Republican-controlled Congress could be catastrophic. But the Republican-controlled Congress seems more interested in impeachment than in what is best for our country and the world. This in spite of authoritative opinions, such as that of Lawrence Tribe, Harvard professor of constitutional law, that Clinton's actions were not bribery, treason or other high crimes and misdemeanors required by the Constitution for purposes of impeachment. President Clinton will be remembered in history for his efforts toward better race relations and equality, for appointing more minority people to high government positions than any other president, for improving the economy and balancing a budget that had ballooned to more than $300 billion under successive Republican regimes, for striving for better educational opportunities, for gun control and less crime, for protecting Social Security, for a better health system, and for a fearless fight, derailed by the Republican Congress, against the death delivery system of big tobacco. He was instrumental in saving the Mexican economy, in brokering peace in Northern Ireland, in stopping the fighting in Bosnia and is close to helping achieve a Mideast peace. President Gerald Ford recently called President Clinton "a leader of rare gifts" and suggested a Congressional rebuke and then letting him get back to work - for the good of the country - but no impeachment. The upcoming election is one of the most important in the history of the U.S. If we want continued prosperity and jobs, if we want to achieve racial equality, if we want fewer guns in the hands of convicts and less crime, we must vote. If we want fewer kids to smoke and die, if we want better education for all, if we want to protect and continue Social Security, we must vote. To defeat the Christian Coalition and protect our rights and freedoms under the Constitution, and to avoid a long, drawn-out impeachment process, we must vote. M. Herbert Nathan, M.D. Phoenix 
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