In response to Dawn Williams' and Kevin R. Stanley's letters to the Acorn published Feb. 12, I'm usually not one to write letters to newspapers because I disagree over what's being said, but these two letters deserve an alternative point of view.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't we just spend eight years of the worst administration this country has ever experienced?

An unnecessary war, a housing fiasco, oil prices out of control, lack of transparency, tax cuts to the very rich, outofcontrol greed that continues to raise its ugly head- and it was all done in a very pro-Republican, proultraconservative administration.

You're very quick to blame officials when there's a Democratic majority, but what happens when it's clearly a Republican majority that got us into this mess?

I don't hear any outrage. The working-class citizens of this country cannot afford any more ultraconservative action, or we'll start looking and acting like another underdeveloped nation with two classes, the ultra rich and the very poor.

So why would anybody be looking toward 2010 and be excited about repeating the same philosophical ideas that got us into this mess to begin with?

I personally am not against Wall Street; we can all agree that free enterprise encourages creativity and a spirit of entrepreneurship, but I'm a firm believer that it needs to be regulated because, yes, we're human beings and make mistakes, and, worst of all, we get very greedy.

Wall Street executives haven't been looking at what's best for America but what's best for their own pocketbooks. No national pride there.

To Mr. Stanley: President Obama gets it; yes, he does, but it's more important right now to be proAmerican than to be proWall Street- particularly when people are losing their homes, their jobs and, worst of all, losing the "American dream." Mary Burau Thousand Oaks