In the March 21 Bangor Daily News, White House spokesman Scott McClellan, referring to the Terri Schiavo case, is quoted as saying, “We ought to err on the side of life in a case like this.”

What makes Schiavo’s life more sacrosanct than that of any other being? My mother always told me that actions speak louder than words. Therefore, this statement, made on behalf of an administration that launched a war under pretentious circumstances, a war that has cost well over 100,000 lives, and one in which cluster bombs, which kill indiscriminately, were used, and headed by a man who took great pride in the fact that as a governor, while setting a modernday record for executions, never gave a capital case more than 15 minutes’ review before signing a death warrant, can only be viewed as political folly.

Sanctity of life does not start and stop with being the poster child of a political constituency. If this administration and the Republican Party want us to believe they are sincere in their statement about the sanctity of life, then they can start by asking for an international peacekeeping force to relieve our troops in Iraq, and by submitting legislation to abolish capital punishment. Until that time, any statements on their behalf, about the sanctity of life, can only be seen as insincere statements made for partisan political advantage.

Peter P. Misluk Jr.

Searsmont