Here's the criteria; now it's your turn

I've come to the conclusion that people will believe what they're going to believe and there is nothing I can do to change that. Therefore, I am not asking readers to vote for a particular candidate for president, but instead I'm offering what they should be looking for when they go to the polls.

The 44th president should:

• Create health-care parity. Mental illness and autism need to stop being discriminated against. This is the 21st century. Surely if we can get beyond prejudice in our candidates, we can do so with health care.

• Get smartly out of a war that was fought for oil. The fighting is increasing our dependence and spending on foreign oil. Had we gone solely to Bin Laden and not after oil, countless lives would have been saved on both sides. Sew it up.

• Less government is great. Ronald Reagan said, "With freedom comes responsibility." Let me responsibly choose what I will do with my body, what doctor I shall see and what hospital I shall see him/her in.

• We are a global community teeming with the latest technology. Work with the best minds to put that technology to use to better our environment instead of a movie or ad campaigns telling us we have to buy a CF-11 light-bulb. Government and the people should be a partnership. Wouldn't that be putting "country first" and "change you can believe in"?

I ask everyone to please take a few moments of your busy life and vote Nov. 4. Check your ego at the door.

Allison M. Kramer

Carpentersville