Unable to focus national attention on any true accomplishments in the war on terrorism, President Bush has resorted to exploiting the national tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001 for political purposes. Today’s campaign advertisements use imagery of ground zero and of a firefighter’s funeral to argue for his re-election. One ad even shows the flag-draped remains of a victim being removed from the rubble.

One woman who lost her husband on Sept. 11 described the president’s action as “a slap in the face of the murders of 3,000 people.” A second Sept. 11 widow was quoted in the press, “After 3,000 people were murdered on his watch it seems to me that that takes an awful lot of audacity. Honestly, it’s in poor taste.”

It is tasteless and worse. Bush has also refused to testify before the Sept. 11 commission that was set up to determine what went wrong in the weeks leading up to the attacks. Many family members are especially upset at the recent campaign ads because the president still refuses to meet with this commission.

Bush has not made America a safer place since the attacks on New York City, and thus has resorted to such ads as these to mislead the American people. I agree with those citizens who feel the politicizing of our national tragedy constitutes a step over the line of decency in politics. The president should apologize to all Americans for these ads and promise to remove the Sept. 11 tragedy from the political debate.

Reeser C. Manley

Orono