Since John McCain and the Republican National Committee appear to have difficulty understanding or believing that those of us who can’t afford to give much still give what we can, let me say publicly, in print, that I’ve donated $50 to Barack Obama’s presidential campaign – $25 in September and $25 in October. It isn’t much, but it’s all I’ve had to give.

I gave it because I believe we need Barack Obama to be the next president of the United States. We need his intelligence, his insightfulness, his thoughtfulness, his commitment and his sense of hope.

As someone only a few years from retirement, I need him to help us through the economic turmoil brought on in great part by the incompetence of the Bush administration; incompetence that has been repeatedly supported by John McCain.

As a father whose youngest son has traveled extensively throughout Europe and Asia during his business career, I need him to restore the respect for America and for Americans that has been destroyed by George Bush’s policies and pronouncements, so that my child can safely set foot on foreign soil. And as an American, I need him to find us peace with pride and bring our service men and women home from a war that should never, ever, have been fought.

John W. Silvernail

Bucksport