By
us cheering for our team and making noise, we show our athlete peers that we want them to win. When you
Max Gefter
Finance and economics sophomore
Al Gore failed to act properly
To the editor,
This correspondence is in regards to the compulsion of Madame Zitta to come forward to defend Vice President Gore. I am without a party (having the opinion that the two party system is an offense to democracy), but I have been watching this election as closely as those who are so divisive on party lines. The fact of the matter is that Al Gore has not acted either as a gentleman or as a patriot during this election deadlock. Ms. Lauricella is so kind to mention the "partisanship" of the Secretary of State (who actually dared to follow the law, heaven forfend) but ignores the role of the partisanship of the Supreme Court of Florida. I will state this plainly, Ms. Harris followed the law and the Supreme Court did not. The question here has never been whether or not people have the right to vote (both sides are wont to agree that this is so), but rather how these votes should be counted. President-elect Bush wishes the votes to be counted according to law by the machine; Vice President Gore wishes the votes to be counted in such a way that he will emerge victorious. Madame Zitta writes, "First, the machine threw out many votes," as if this were a sure sign that the election were in some way unfair. Every election the machine throws out votes because they are invalid. To claim these votes have not been counted is childish; they were rejected by a non-partisan computer. This is fair and this is even. Whether or not it is accurate may be up for debate, but it is not discriminatory. When the machine throws out a vote, it does not care whether that person intended to vote for Bush, Gore, Buchanan or Nader. A manual recount brings with it prejudice because it is conducted by persons of party affiliation. This is certainly not accurate (my experience with math classes at the university level makes me wonder if the average person can even count to 10). Ms. Lauricella is correct on one count; this is a question of democracy. Democracy allows that each be able to vote.
Democracy allows for contests between candidates. This is a contest between Gore and Bush because democracy was upheld weeks ago when the first count was finished. A democracy does not by its nature grant the right to recount after recount. This is a question of "sore loser" and "whining" because Vice President Gore has no interest in the law. I do not support abortion, but I do support that legally speaking abortion cannot be disallowed.
William A. Bazzell
Classics sophomore
