I’M WRITING in response to the derogatory cartoons and articles which have appeared recently in the Rome-News Tribune concerning conservationists and environmentalists. Vice President Joe Biden, President Barack Obama, and I also seek to address the agenda of the political right and the religious right.

First, I’m proud to state that I’m a dues paying member of the Sierra Club. I also strongly support The work of the Coosa River Basin Initiative, Trout Unlimited, The Nature Conservancy, The World Wildlife Fund. The National Resources Defense Council, and the Audubon Society.

Secondly, Vice President Joe Biden is well liked, he’s an asset to the Democratic ticket, and he would be quite capable of handling the presidency. Any notion that he would be replaced on the Democratic ticket was sheer fantasy on the part of some of his detractors.

Thirdly, what President Barack Obama has accomplished is historic. He’s the first African-American president and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. He instituted health care reform, eliminated the world’s leading terrorist (Osama Bin Laden), brought our combat forces home from Iraq, and his greatest legacy will be that his economic policies kept our economy from spiraling into a full blown economic depression. His administration leads the world in the deportation of illegals and like me, he personally believes that marriage should be between a male and a female. He will be the mainstream Protestant candidate in the up-coming presidential election.

Lastly, concerning the agenda of the political right and the religious right, it encompasses many political organizations and individuals and it is radical in disposition.

Those on the right would privatize Social Security, Medicaid, the VA Health Care System and would replace Medicare. They would replace public schools with state sponsored charter schools, thereby bypassing local school boards. They would also grant vouchers to well-to-do parents whose children attend private schools. They would repeal the Affordable Health Care Act while promoting the desires of major insurance carriers. They would attempt to balance the federal budget on the backs of lower and middle income Americans, mainly by cutting entitlement programs, while simultaneously giving tax breaks to the wealthiest among us. They would continue in their efforts to weaken or break labor unions while deregulating Wall Street.

All abortions would be illegal, including the termination of pregnancies incurred as a result of rape, incest or pregnancies that placed the would-be mother’s health in grave danger. Women would be denied equal pay for equal work.

You see what the conservatives did to our economy, the havoc they’ve wreaked at my alma mater, Shorter University and what they’re trying to do concerning our constitutional rights. If the political and religious right represent what’s best for and about America, then I’m ready to cash in.