I sincerely appreciated your well-researched and obviously heartfelt post regarding William Ayers. While he may be a changed man forty years later, his unrepentant attitude is offensive...unacceptable. I absolutley do not differ with you on that. I might add that Barack Obama has said the same thing about Ayers.

Where we differ is whether Obama's associations with Ayers more than a decade ago should be considered a fatal lack of judgement, a permanent character flaw, a disqualification for the Presidency.

Those questions were factors that I considered in making my voting choice, but not the only factor. All I can conclude is that we disagree on the emphasis that should be placed on the Ayers relationship. And we also may disagree on other factors that might be considered when making a voting choice. I don't think any less of the people who did their research and were thoughtful in their considerations, as you obviously have been.

I will admit that I get irritated when people make their decisions without any analysis or thought--based on false facts, an emotional response or a campaign-provided tagline. Tthe lady in Minnesota who wouldn't vote for Obama because he was an Arab comes to mind. But for people to consider the facts, analyze the record, listen to the campaign promises, and then make their choice is exactly the way a democracy should work. I admire people who do that and hope that, if their decision is different from mine, that we can agree to disagree on a friendly basis.

More importantly, we should all agree to support whichever candidate is elected. In these times in particular, without the broad support of the entire country, the winner will be the loser. If we remain fractionalized and polarized and angry, as a country we'll all be the losers.