Dear Electors,

I think you've probably heard of me, during my 15 minutes of fame 3 ½ years ago. If you remember the comet named Hale-Bopp, which was shining in the nighttime skies during the spring months of 1997, well, I'm the "Hale" part of that. While that comet was around I encouraged everyone to whom I would speak to take some time to look at that majestic visitor, and to try to think of ways to make the world a better place for us and our descendants.  Even during the dark days following the Heaven's Gate incident I tried to encourage all who would listen to me to try to put the ignorance associated with incidents like that behind us, and instead look to the promise of a future that we have the power to build.

I don't know about that any more. The United States has always been a nation that has set itself as a shining example to the rest of the world as to the way things could, and should, be. But that is no longer true. We have defiled ourselves in front of the world. We have lost all credibility. We shook our heads at the electoral cronyism that took place in Yugoslavia a few months ago, and now we find that we are no better. We piously send observers to oversee elections taking place in other countries around the world, and now we find that we can't properly oversee our own elections. "We the People" have become "We the Political Cronies" and now we must bear our shame for it.

Tonight I had to tell my 13-year-old son that everything he has been taught in school about democracy in our nation, and how every vote is supposed to count, is nothing but a lie. I told him this with anger in my heart and with tears in my eyes. You see, I was taught this in school, too, and I believed it.  But no more.

My father married my mother in 1941, but four months after their marriage came Pearl Harbor, and my father had to leave his new wife and spend the next four years fighting in World War II for this country. He fought for a lie. My older brother fought in Vietnam, but he fought for a lie, too. Me?  Well, I attended the U.S. Naval Academy, and spent four years hearing about things like "honor" and "upholding the Constitution," and then I spent some time in the Navy. Fortunately I never had to confront the hideous decision about whether or not to kill a fellow human being. Nevertheless, it now seems that everything I was told was a lie.

This country is about ready to install as its leader an individual who has not earned the right to lead this nation. This individual lost the popular vote for President. Furthermore, as I'm quite sure we will all find out eventually, this individual almost certainly lost the popular vote in the decisive state of Florida. But rather than see what "We, the People" had to say, this individual and his cronies took things into their own hands.  Voters who would have cast votes for his opponent were illegally and immorally prevented from casting those votes. Officials who were attempting to carry out a legal and court-mandated tally of the votes were harassed and physically assaulted by people hired and brought in from out-of-state for the purpose of shutting down that tally, and who were then congratulated afterwards. 

This individual and his cronies did everything in their power to delay the vote tally to which his opponent, and all of America, was legally and morally entitled, until the time for such a tally had run out and the votes could be ignored. Shortly before I wrote these words, the U.S. Supreme Court irreparably shamed itself and this nation by running out the clock and then handing the Presidency to an individual who has not earned it and who has demonstrated to the entire world that there is no limit to the depths to which he will stoop to take it.

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