Editor, Gazette-Journal:

Issues of importance:

1. The education and experience as a leader who knows how to make a decision and knows when compromise is appropriate and when it is not.

2. A history of values which include respect for our Constitution and the understanding of how the balance of power works and why it is needed.

3. Evidence of humility that would allow him or her to place the well-being of America before personal comforts.

4. Personal values that support those which built America and made her strong.

5. Courage—the kind that was alive in the Founders and is still alive today.

Issues not important:

1. The color of his or her skin.

2. The ability to "charm"—because it is deceitful.

3. Opinions from the entertainment world. The office of the President of the United States is greater than that.

Most of all, when all the votes are in and accounted for, we need to remember that no matter what we mortals do or who is allowed the privilege to be president of this exceptional nation that God has blessed, we are the people who made our voices heard over the noise and confusion from the land of politics and the media, and as always, He will prevail and that is the way it should be.

Dawn Dale

Hayes, Va.