LETTER: Not hard to check facts

Editor,

In yesterday's column, "Good guys never come out winners," on page 6, by Mike Still, he says, "Few Democrats spoke loudly against an invasion of Iraq and in the end, the Senate vote allowing for possible military action was 99-1. The lone dissenter was Sen. Paul Wellstone of Minnesota."

I may be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure that this is not true! I knew that at least Sens. Bingaman and Byrd had voted against it and the reporting was that Wellstone was practically the only Democrat up for re-election to vote against it, but people shouldn't think that it was that skewed.

I looked it up on Google and it seems that the vote was 77-33. It shouldn't have been that hard to check before he wrote the article - students should have access to many sources of data (and librarians who can help them find it). In trying to find an article about our Senator's voting record, as is printed in the Albuquerque Journal every Sunday, on the newspaper's Web site (and also looking at the Albuquerque Tribune's), I realized that there is no category for politics, or government, on either one - just news about the election! No wonder we're not very well-informed about such an important area! And look how much of newspapers and their Web sites (including yours) is devoted to sports, as if it really affects our lives.

I think the real reason the Republicans won is that not enough women under 65 (who tend to vote more Democrat) voted; they didn't see a good reason to, and they already have a long day at work and at home, so didn't get around to it.

If we voted on Sunday, like most other developed countries (or like them, had paid maternity leave, or help with childcare, or medical coverage for people under 65, or a shorter workday, or shorter campaigns), maybe the turnout wouldn't keep going down, and younger people would see some connection between government and their lives. Sometimes the House races seemed like they were just for people getting Social Security and Medicare. Publicly financed campaigns, as in Arizona, look very promising - I wish we could do that here.

Michelle Meaders

University Hospital staff