Very soon, members from the two main political parties will be writing their letters to the editor, telling you what a great person their candidate is. Essentially, they'll be trying to convince you that their candidate is the next best thing since sliced bread and that you'd be a fool not to vote for them.

However, in looking back over the last 60 years, we can trace the problems that this country is having to both the Democrats and Republicans. From massive deficit spending, to robbing and spending every penny in the Social Security Trust Fund, to getting us involved in unnecessary wars, to gross moral and ethical violations, these two parties share equally in blame. And the reason that they share equally is that both parties did it while they had complete control of government, as well as when they shared it with each other.

The two main parties will state that you're just wasting your vote if you vote for a third party candidate. But it would seem to a reasonable person that the truly wasted vote is one that keeps returning these same two parties to office over and over again, knowing that no matter who wins, the results will be the same as they have been for more than half a century.

This election, I urge everyone to go to the website www.nysthirdparty.com/ to learn who your third party choices are and to vote for them. That will do more to get the Democrats and Republicans attention than to keep alternately returning them to power year after year. After all, if you keep returning them to office knowing that there will be no difference from the past, then you're the one who is really to blame for the mess that we're in, not them.

Steven Ziemba

Memphis