ENOUGH CARD-PLAYING -- Democracy needs more town meetings and fewer dog and pony shows, where questions must be written on cards, subject to censors

For too long, St. Johns County voters have been treated like goobers by those who conduct election fora -- required to write our questions down on cards as if we were too inept to speak for ourselves. This is an insult to our democracy and our voters.

Tomorrow night's presidential debate from Nashville Tennessee will see citizens standing up and asking their own questions of John McCain and Barack Obama.

In sharp and marked contrast, fora sponsored by aspiring fora in Our Town are hopelessly provincial, making grown adults write down their questions on cards.

WILLIAM L. PROCTOR's FLAGLER COLLEGE makes people do it at the conservative Flagler College Forum. The LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS does it for their fora.

Only St. Paul's African Methodist Episcopal Church, among the fora I attended earlier this year, allows voters to question candidates uncensored.

Ironically, tomorrow night's LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS forum on Mosquito Control and Airport Commission candidates will, unless changes are made, be of the card-playing variety. Enough card playing. People who watch the LWV forum will then see the real thing, with Obama and McCain answering questions from real people.

Vive le difference! Thanks to Paul G. Kirk and the COmmission on Presidential Debates for doing it the right way. Sorry that the St. Johns County League of WOmen Voters and other groups make politics dull by insisting we play their dumb 'ole card games. No wonder no one attends or watches the dull fora -- the public is treated like marks for a group of cardsharps.