In response to the Nov. 10 letter “Bush’s Victory Still a Mystery”: As a Republican, I’ve encountered very similar conundrums as Mr. Schottle with our president. How has Bush oppose abortion, yet support a war and the death penalty? Here are my thoughts on the matter.

I see a difference in abortion and fighting in a war or enforcing the death penalty. In the war, it is not our president’s fault our young men and women are there. The people fighting for our country are doing so because they chose to do so. It’s part of the choice they made for themselves. I don’t know of anyone who was forced into joining our armed forces, and especially not by our government. Those men and women are simply doing the job they signed up to do.

I see abortion differently. The person being killed in an abortion is not someone who made a choice. This person had no control over the choices his or her biological parents made, whatever those choices were. I had no decision in whether or not I was born, and neither did anyone else I know. Nor does this person have a say whether he or she should be given the chance to live once conceived and born.

As for homosexuality, neither myself nor the government can do anything to stop what people do privately. Nobody can stop homosexuals from their actions and thoughts in the same way that no one can stop me from praying privately. The government can stop homosexuals from having the public recognition of marriage. That same government also keeps millions of high school students from praying publicly in schools.

Teachers are not allowed to advocate their beliefs in a nation with freedoms of speech and religion. The Ten Commandments are not allowed in government buildings (although they are everywhere in our federal judiciary buildings in Washington. Let’s not forget the battle for removing the mention of God from our Pledge of Allegiance and bank notes or omitting “Christ” from the word “Christmas.” In my eyes, it goes both ways.

What we put into our lives and what people get from witnessing our lives is based on choices we, as individuals, are able to make. Millions of individuals made the choice for our president last week. So, Mr. Schottle, I made the choice of voting for President Bush on account of moral issues. I hope this is a clear reason.

Mike Seehusen

Junior

Agricultural Systems Technology