I will not try to speak for all Christians or even all Catholics, as some have attempted. But I feel compelled to speak for myself, because I cannot stand by and listen to other people tell me how to vote for my government based on my spiritual beliefs. I am Catholic. I spent 13 years in Catholic school and my entire life in a great Catholic community. During that time I was consistently taught in class, at home and through the actions of those around me that God’s greatest commandment is to love others. Period.

I voted for Kerry. I refused to vote for someone who signed 155 death warrants from behind a desk in an expensive office in Texas. I refused to vote for someone who symbolically signed thousands of death warrants when he bloodied the United States’ hands by declaring war on Iraq. I refused to vote for someone who wants to declare 10 percent of U.S. citizens less than citizens by writing into the Constitution they don’t deserve to be married. And I refused to vote for someone who now believes he has a mandate from God to impose his religious and moral beliefs on others, someone who will only reach out to those who share his faith-influenced goals (Daily Illini, “Bush Prepares to Pursue Goals,” Friday).

Catholics, and I believe Christians in general, aren’t all ignorant sheep, and I repudiate that characterization from those who would love nothing more than to classify themselves as such as an excuse for keeping comfortable at the expense of others.

Bridget Geraghty

Sophomore in LAS