Consider the actions, not the lifestyle

The other day, my father sent me an e-mail I had seen a few times before. The first time I read it, I deleted it. When I received it this time, I kept it because it piqued my interest. Here is what it said:\nQuestion 1: If you knew a woman who was pregnant, had syphilis, had eight kids, three of whom were deaf, two of whom were blind and one of whom was mentally disabled, would you recommend she have an abortion?\nQuestion 2: It is time to elect a new world leader, and your vote counts. Whom do you choose? Here are the facts about the three candidates:\n• Candidate A: Associates with crooked politicians and consults astrologists. He's had two mistresses. He also chain smokes and drinks eight to 10 martinis a day.\n• Candidate B: He was kicked out of office twice, sleeps until noon, used opium in college and drinks a quart of whiskey every evening.\n• Candidate C: He is a decorated war hero. He's a vegetarian, doesn't smoke, drinks only an occasional beer and hasn't had any extramarital affairs.\nWhich of these candidates would be your choice?\nCandidate A is Franklin D. Roosevelt.\nCandidate B is Winston Churchill.\nCandidate C is Adolf Hitler.\nAnd by the way, if you answered "yes" to the abortion question, you just killed Ludwig von Beethoven.\nI am not, by any standards, a political columnist, but I do have a political opinion. I try to base my political decisions on real facts and real issues 'just like every other idealist in the world.\nI really do believe we in the media have given politics a difficult mountain to climb. Because of our nosiness and our insatiable need for people to read our work, we have caused the office of the presidency to fall into disrepute. We now look for character flaws before we hear the real political agendas.\nFor instance, the day presidential hopeful Al Gore announced Sen. Joe Lieberman as his running mate, America Online message boards were filled with anti-Semitic remarks. The man had not even accepted the nomination, and none of his political opinions had been made public at the national level. Yet already he was condemned.\nTo hear FDR had extramarital affairs does not surprise me. What does surprise me is that 60 years later we are not condemning him, as we are prone to do these days. But because FDR is considered to be among the nation's greatest presidents, his personal faults have been overlooked by the test of time.\nAt the same time, Hitler was a gentleman who led a respectful personal life and was a war hero. But, that does not diminish the fact that he maniacally persuaded his nation to kill its own countrymen (and millions of others as well).\nWhat I am trying to convey is that 60 years ago, these men were judged not by their personal lifestyles, but by the choices they made while in office. Similarly, I believe our current leaders and those we choose to have in office in future years should be elected or remembered purely by the issues they represent or have represented.\nAnd as a final thought, I can't imagine the world without the music of Beethoven.