For more than a year now I have spent hundreds and hundreds of hours researching each candidate for president. I have studied all their speeches, facts, figures and fabrications.

I won’t list any of them here. You have heard most of them and have decided which to believe on your own.

I want to tell you something that you don’t know, and I pray that you will never have the occasion to experience. You won’t know about this because there are never any press or cameras or entourage floating about.

Many months ago, a close friend of my daughter’s was the 300th soldier to die in the war on terrorism. Several months after that, his family received an invitation to come to hear the President address the troops at Fort Lewis. After the address, they were led into a room alone and in walked the President all by himself. He spent an hour with them talking about their loved one’s heroism. It was all about their hero. There was not one political word uttered. There were tears and hugs and a real caring. It seems that he tries to meet all the families like this for a one-on-one show of respect for their heroes. This wasn’t a rich man’s son, a poor man’s son or an ethnic group that he wanted to impress. It was respect for a hero and his family’s sacrifice. I know this because I talked to the family.

On the other hand I experience personally, in 1971, the effects of Kerry telling the world and my friend’s families that their dead heroes were monsters, rapists, murderers and more. I saw him break the military code of conduct. I remember because it hit me personally. All the facts and figures and spun tales are so much dust in the wind.

Ann Adams asked in one of her letters, “How President Bush could look family members of the military in the eyes?” I have the answer for her. He looks them in the eyes with tears and respect and no TV cameras or photo ops are allowed.

Sharyn Mellors

Coupeville