This year and one month marks the 10th year anniversary of a spectacularly successful world joint venture that led to the creation of an International Space Station (ISS). On Jan. 29, 1998, Canada, Russia, the U.S., Japan, and the European Space Agency signed the agreement to build the ISS. On Oct. 31, 2000, William Shepard, Yuri Gedzenko and Sergei Krikalev were the first to man the space station.

The benefits derived from the space programs are too numerous to enumerate in this letter. They range from medicine to technology. The return on investment is a spectacular $8 for each dollar invested. In contrast, the return on investment in foreign wars is negative. Even we the citizens at home lose. Space exploration is not a project like force of war where we use our precious resources to destroy someone else's resources, and then another round to rebuild what we destroyed.

Where is there a JFK among the presidential candidates? McCain, Hillary, and Obama are bent for war. All want to further build up the military and to what purpose? I have yet to hear proposals for international cooperation to solve global problems from any of the leading candidates. Only military solutions. No military will solve the global warming problem, protect earth from annihilation from a massive meteor (such as one that just intersected earth's orbit within five minutes of our passage a few years back) nor increase the quality of our life.

The only ones who do not advocate military build up are Ron Paul and Ralph Nader. As pointed out in a recent letter by Joe Lonsky, Nader has done far more for you and me than any other candidate has or ever will do. Give Ron and Ralph a chance to have their voices heard by donating at the very least the price of a movie ticket to their campaign for a start. It won't break you. That will be the best investment to a brighter future you ever made. There is no way you lose.

Peter Kotzer

Auburn