When my daughter was 4 she took a candy bar from the shelf of a CVS store where we were shopping. When we got home, she took it out of her pocket and told me the “store man” gave it to her. It was the occasion for our first talk about lying. Although we were both tired and frazzled, we went back to the store and she returned the item and apologized to the store manager.

Now we have a president whose pockets are bulging with stolen candy. His attack advertisements against Sen. John Kerry are an example. He has pulled the goods out of his pocket and showed them to us, and they are lies.

For instance, Kerry will not raise our taxes by $900,000. The only tax increases he wants will fall where they belong – on the rich who can afford to pay them. There’s no mommy holding President Bush to account either, because the folks who manage our president are taking the stolen goods right out of his pocket and putting them in their own corporate larders.

Bush’s campaign ads are the latest form of public lying. We need to hold our president accountable for his actions.

We the people are responsible to our democracy to keep it honest. Let’s not let the administration’s sweet tooth for money and power pull the wool over our eyes.

Katherine Fiveash

Isle au Haut