Regarding Takeru Toki's March 16 letter, "Plea for better judgment this time": As a conservative Republican who has always been active in politics and who never voted for George W. Bush for either his first or second term as president, I wonder how "judgment" comes into play when the U.S. Supreme Court decided (or stole) the first election from the American people and gave it to Bush. Also, who do we vote for this election?
No one really wants Sens. John McCain or Hillary Clinton, but Sen. Barack Obama has just distanced himself from his pastor's inflammatory comments that "We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye."
I have read "The Dignity of a State" and agree with Masahiko Fujiwara that democracy basically has failed and may lead to war and the destruction of our world. What can any of us Americans do when it comes to voting? Will the candidates do what they promise and will the elections be fair? The answers are definitely no and judgment has nothing to do with it.
I suggest reviving the Samurai spirit (and looking to Nitobe's "Bushido") as Fujiwara suggests. Maybe the world will see the good in this and follow Japan in getting away from democracy and back to the arts (emotions and forms) and restoring peace around the world.