Now that the election is over, Americans have to ask ourselves this: Are we a democracy or a theocracy?

As we head more and more to the right, the government does not become smaller, it becomes more of a part of our lives. On the role of religion involved in the government, the next four years are not going to be pretty. The Constitution of the United States says that church and state must be separate. That means the government cannot be involved in religious practices around the country, and the government outlaws the sanctioning of any religion in any form.

That is the most literal interpretation of the Constitution. So both parties have got it wrong. I know some want to outlaw abortion again in the United States. The question I ask is: Do we really want our police officers sitting in hospitals, arresting doctors because they do an abortion? That makes us more of a police state and less of a democracy.

Thankfully, things are less drastic in the war on terror. The war in Afghanistan is winnable as long as we keep our allies involved in the country. Iraq, however, is a different matter; we need a whole new policy in the country.

The first change is that we need more troops on the ground. We need to better equip our troops with the most modern and protected weapons possible — not weapons from the Vietnam era, like so many of our National Guard major combat units are using. Overall, I, for one, am waiting to see how President Bush develops as a president. I hope and pray that he becomes a better leader than he was in his first term. He can be a president with the legacy of balancing the budget, winning the peace in Iraq and bringing our troops home.

Protecting the environment and protecting our families is important. He can lead by example. Or he can be a president that destroys our budget and leaves us with a mess in Iraq. He can lead with no followers and a split nation. But, more importantly, to all who were involved in the political process this year, stay involved because you can be a moderating influence on a president who will start to worry about his historical legacy.

Jay Honeyman

Junior

History