Published in Courier Post - South Jersey on Saturday, November 19, 2005

Re: "Shameful liberals" (letters, Nov. 11).

The letter writer asks, "Can you show me one group of people who have truly benefited from the liberal approach, with the exception of the Democrats elected to office by their misguided followers?"

Senior citizens have benefited from the actions of Franklin Roosevelt, a liberal president who instituted Social Security during the 1930s.

African-Americans and other people of color can vote because liberals stood up for their rights during the 1950s and 1960s.

All Americans breathe cleaner air and drink cleaner water due to the actions of liberal environmentalists, who achieved the passage of the Clean Air and Clean Water acts during the 1970s. (The Republicans are still working on undoing these acts, however.)

Perhaps the benefits that Americans enjoy due to liberal causes are hard to discern because so many of us take them for granted.

EDDIE KONCZAL Monroe