Published in Home News & Tribune - Central Jersey on 01/7/06

In a letter to the editor, Barbara Skokan writes in horror of "radical left-wingers" and "liberalism unraveling the very fabric of our nation." Since I am one of those terroristic liberals of whom she writes, let me point out a few things. First, I am proud to be a liberal, which means, as defined in Funk and Wagnalls, that I "favor progress . . . (I am) not intolerant or prejudiced, and characterized by generosity."

Skokan makes many assumptions that are doubtful or downright incorrect. While I am not a member of PETA, I doubt that the members did not care about flight attendants who "had their throats slit." I am, however, a member of a coalition of people who are very concerned about the occupation of Iraq and the ever-increasing confiscation of our own civil liberties by the current Republican administration.

Skokan talks of rules our country was handed, and I presume she is referring to the Constitution. Yet it is the Bush administration who is breaking these rules in many ways, the most recent being bypassing the FISA court in ordering spying on U.S. citizens.

As a liberal, I would like to tell Skokan what I do and what I believe in. I am a psychiatric nurse, in practice for 40 years. My primary concern in this profession is to alleviate the suffering of those for whom I provide care. That includes a concern that all persons regardless of income, color or religion have access to the same standard of care. If that is a "liberal" value, I am proud to be a liberal.

In my spare time, for the past several years, I have engaged in anti-war activities. I participate in a weekly vigil with an unfortunately ever-growing wall that memorializes all the American soldiers and some of the Iraqi women and children killed in the Iraq war and occupation.

I participate in a group that seeks to educate parents and teenagers about their right to privacy in not having the teenagers' information automatically given to military recruiters in the schools. I give community members information about the illegality and immorality of the war in Iraq, and information about the Bush administration's attempts to strip us of our civil liberties.

In terms of our own safety, Iraq has provided a wonderful recruitment tool for those who do wish to do us harm; we are far less safe because of Bush and his administration's policies and actions.