Editor, Gazette-Journal:

A few days ago, I was castigated by an acquaintance for admitting a little over four years ago I was ready to vote for a young, new candidate for president named Barack Obama. To me, a child of the ’60s who participated in tearing down racial barriers, Barack Obama seemed to have been the fulfillment of Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘Dream’: a color-blind society, racial equality.

Then I read "Dreams from my Father" and realized Barack’s heroes were not my heroes. He said he sought out the company of revolutionaries: Marxists, socialists and communists like those he had been brought up to respect and idolize by his parents, grandparents, mentor Frank Marshall Davis—and my commitment to Barack Obama waned.

My heroes were Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights leaders of the ’60s. I questioned whether MLK would have condoned Planned Parenthood, an organization now known to have been founded to create a "pure" population and reduce or even eliminate the black population, and I absolutely know MLK would have condemned Barack’s radical votes to withhold medical care for babies who survived the abortion table. MLK would have regretted the unintended destruction of the family that Lyndon Johnson’s "Great Society" inflicted on society. No, I didn’t believe Martin Luther King Jr. would have been a fan of Barack Obama.

My heroes were presidents like John F. Kennedy, who routed communists from our hemisphere, declared the United States would not be a second-rate power, and launched the space race that put an American on the moon and created a whirlwind of scientific activity and achievements. Barack does not like the notion of America’s "exceptionalism." He thinks America has been put on a pedestal it does not deserve and has been the perpetrator of more hurtful policies than good. I witnessed his pastor at Trinity United Church of Christ curse my country and say, "No, no, not God bless America; God damn America!" This did more than turn me away from the notion of voting for Barack Obama. It absolutely terrified and sickened me that the party of JFK had turned into the party of Barack Obama. The party that fought communism in the ’60s was being endorsed by the Communist Party of 2008.

No, I decided that, in spite of his extraordinary speeches, Barack Obama was not the person he portrayed himself to be—nor the person I wished him to be. He was most certainly not the "One" I was waiting for. Needless to say, I’m casting my vote for Mitt Romney.

Sue Sherrill

Hudgins, Va.