Stephen Yeargin

See how many of these you believe in:

• A woman cannot be president.
  A woman cannot take the tough challenges of the office.
• A divorced man cannot be president.
  He has no respect for the institution of marriage.
• A black man cannot be president.
  He will only pay attention to his own race.
• A Mormon cannot be president.
  Members of his faith believe in polygamy.
• A 70+ year old cannot be president.
  He might not live through his first term.
• An actor cannot be president.
  He made his money pretending to be somebody else.
• A minister cannot be president.
  He would force his particular denomination on all of us.
• A husband with a terminally ill spouse cannot be president.
  He should be at home.

Not a single one of these are valid reasons not to vote for one of the Democratic or Republican presidential candidates. If you found yourself agreeing with the list above, take a long hard look at where your priorities lie. Let’s talk about issues that matter, like affordable health care, improving the quality of education, strengthening our economy and restoring the respect we as a nation once had within the world community.

If you want to find fault with a candidate to explain why you do not support them, look to the issues. Say “I don’t like his/her plan for health care” instead of “I read somewhere in an e-mail that he was a Muslim.” Sharing your personal prejudice with others is a lot like spreading a horrible disease. It infects the otherwise reasonable mind and turns it into nothing more than a parrot for one particular misguided point of view.