behrens.qxd
To the editor:
As I read with interest the curiously headlined “Driving the Wedge: How the gay community has hijacked the governor’s race” [September 11], the real problem with politics in Illinois (and across the entire country) slapped me in the face again: that damnable two-party system.
We’re told that to support any candidate other than a Democrat or Republican is akin to throwing one’s vote away. But if both parties nominate essentially the same candidate, then what are progressive-minded individuals supposed to do on election day so they can still look themselves in the mirror the morning after? The issue of equal rights for the entire gay and lesbian community (as well as a woman’s right to freely choose abortion) cannot be compromised. Catch-22, what to do?
“You can’t sit an election out,” claims gay Republican Dan Sprehe, who’s made many life choices (as outlined in the article) that required all sorts of questionable rationalizations. “You can’t not vote for both candidates. You have to make a choice.”
Well, I’ve made my choice, and it ain’t Poshard, and it ain’t Ryan neither. No matter what anyone says, other choices do exist. Come November 3, I’m making a statement at the ballot box: I’m writing in the name “Dawn Clark Netsch,” and I’m holding my head high while I do it. Sure, a lot of Uncle Toms–er, I mean “realists”–might think I’ve thrown my vote away. But at least I won’t have thrown my good conscience away with it.
W.E. Behrens
Ravenswood