On Monday, Vice President Dick Cheney appeared in Bangor in front of an “invitation only” crowd and attempted to convince people that this is not a time for political change (“Cheney tells Bangor: It’s no time to change,” BDN, May 11).

I strongly disagree. The Bush administration has wasted close to $200 billion of our desperately needed tax dollars, and caused the deaths of close to 800 of our loved ones in the military, due to forcing our nation into this absolutely needless war in Iraq. Bush and Cheney do not have family members who were forced to serve in Iraq, but I do, and I don’t want them returning home in caskets.

We need political change in our nation now more than ever before. This administration has put our country on a dangerous path, which is resulting in all of us being even less safe and less secure than we ever were.

Thomas Winton

Bangor