To the Editor:

I was a teenager in Meridian when they marched across this bridge. I’ve been a liberal southern Democrat all my life and it is a great sign, candidates from my race and party are concerned about the African-American vote.

It is a long road from policemen unleashing dogs on black women and children or Maddox chasing black folks out of the Pickrick up Peachtree to Five Points with an axe handle. You might note both Wallace and Maddox begged forgiveness before their demise.

I’m asking you to closely consider voting for Mr. Obama.

Clinton, the candidate, decided to attend the bridge crossing after Mr. Obama and she’s dragging Billy with her.

I believe Mr. Obama’s intentions were less contrived. Mrs. Clinton is good at manipulation, but personally I don’t trust a person to protect us who picnics with McCain in Baghdad and brunches with Murdoch in New England while telling me she’s against stealing Iraq’s oil.

I’m a Vietnam War veteran, Air Force and print journalist. We had no right to invade a sovereign state to steal its oil.

Republicans got the government of our oil colony to sign a New Oil Law this week giving western Big Oil execs, three of them, the right to sit on a new council and control oil contracts and development, effectively reconfiguring OPEC and rewarding themselves with unaccountable riches while our soldiers murder the residents who hate us for invading their country to steal their oil.

Big Oil wins, game over. They also get to bank all their war profits tax free in the Caymans because Republicans hid a tax break in the Homeland Security Act. We invaded to control the second largest oil reserve on the planet and now we do, we just murdered more than 100,000 people to acquire it.

As a born and raised Southerner, it’s just a hop, skip and a B-52, from burning “colored” folks off their Delta land and bombing “colored” folks off their oil.

It’s racist, xenophobic and not to mention a list of war crimes defying imagination, not unlike the bombing of two Fallujah hospitals in December 2004, which we occupied to control the civilian body count never released to the Iraqi nationals or the world.

Please don’t elect Clinton, she’s as Republican as they are and she doesn’t give a flying, dead Fallujah baby who we bomb as long as it’s good for bidness. Sorry Hillary, you’ve had four long years to do the right thing. Now it’s Judgement Day and you’re name won’t be on the Sanity Ticket for 08. It’ll be a combo platter of Obama, Richardson and Edwards but who knows the order. Gore’s the wildcard.

Bob Hyer

Lillian