Dear Editor: Containing my anger as I write this is not easy. Eight years ago my country was prosperous, optimistic and moving forward. We were at peace, enjoyed a budget surplus and a good name throughout most of the world.

Not today. Today, we stand amid the rubble of eight disastrous years. We have the greatest budget deficit in history; we are at war on two fronts; our borders are out of control; our justice department has been used as a political weapon; our government stands accused to torturing enemy combatants; secrecy in government has been abused in the name of national security; our banking system and economy is in danger of failure; surveillance of private citizens by government has clearly violated privacy laws; we spend more on military than the next seven nations; we have engaged in military adventurism abroad and nation building; our intelligence gathering network costs us 50 billion dollars a year and has failed miserably. And that's just the top of it.

Far worse, in my opinion, is the fact that we failed as well. It was obvious that George W. Bush was incompetent after four years in office, but we re-elected a man who is arguably the worst president in modern history, if not our entire history. Not only did we re-elect him when we shouldn't have, we failed to remove him from office when it as obvious that he was incompetent and oblivious to his own incompetence.

Barack Hussein Obama is stepping into a maelstrom not of his own making. Whether or not he can bring order out of chaos is on all our minds, and we are praying that he will be successful.

Ron Slade Sr.
Covington