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© St. Petersburg Times, published February 21, 2002
Re: Support of religious intolerance, Feb. 18.
Your editorial claims that our legislators who put their name on the bill to promote prayer at public high school graduation ceremonies and other assemblies "should be ashamed." Should we also be ashamed of Abraham Lincoln who prayed in his second Inaugural Address that the "mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away" and recalled that "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether"? Should we also be ashamed of the magnificent obelisk of the Washington Monument that is inscribed with the Latin phrase Laus Deo -- "Praise be to God"? I think not.
In fact, to blot out the acknowledgment of God in our public life (i.e. prayer) is to change the meaning of America. Since colonial times, America has been a haven for those seeking to worship God as they see fit. As Americans, we are proud of our long heritage of protecting the rights of people of every faith and of no particular faith. Our nation has vigilantly and rightly protected the freedom of members of minority faiths and even those who disdain religious faith. When you prohibit Americans from acknowledging God in public prayer, you assault the central principles of our tradition of ordered liberty -- principles which are rooted in belief in a Creator to whom all human beings and governments are accountable. I believe that your editorial is an insult to every American who fought and died for the religious freedom of expression in our country.
"Thank God" for Reps. Gus Bilirakis, R-Palm Harbor, Kim Berfield, R-Clearwater, and the many other legislators who voted for prayer in the public arena. They remind me of our forefathers.
-- Mrs. Jan Avery, Clearwater
Re: Support of religious intolerance.
For the editors to characterize House passage of the bill (HB 667) that allows public prayer at graduations as "shoving religion onto a program that is supposed to mark the culmination of a secular education" is outrageous. To say "the life of a student could be marred by religious coercion" is preposterous. Religion is belief that cannot be "shoved" and prayer never "marred" anyone's life.
The editors view this bill as an issue of religious intolerance because it is "pandering to the majority faith" and ignoring the "sting of being marginalized." More alarming, they referred to the legislators, most of whom supported the bill, as "white" Republicans and "black" Democrats. The editors then pontificated, "They should be ashamed." No. Introducing race into a discussion about prayer is shameful.
Saying a prayer at graduation does not "establish" a religion. The First Amendment says, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion . . ." The use of the word "respecting" can be confusing. I believe the founding fathers simply meant that the government should not pass a law that would create and sanction a religion or a law that endorses an existing religion. They followed that with the even more powerful statement: (Congress shall make no law) ". . . prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . ." In plain English, they meant they wouldn't "bless" any religion and everyone was free to find blessing anywhere. These guys were good.
It's unbelievable that the Supreme Court has prohibited student-initiated prayer at school sporting events. It is even more incredible that the editors want this prohibition to include school graduations. It saddens me that we seem to have put religion in our dining room cabinets, like so much "good china" that we use only on Sunday.
"In God We Trust." Yeah, just keep him out of school.
-- Jack Bray, Dunedin
Sept. 11's horrific terrorist attacks have led to an increase in what many scholars call "civil religion" -- endorsements (usually fairly generic) of God and faith by political and government leaders. It is important to remember, however, that our civil liberties are at great risk in times of crisis. We should, therefore, be more, rather than less, vigilant about protecting them from erosion in the coming weeks and months -- including by our Legislature in Tallahassee.
The terrorist attacks should not be used as an excuse to ignore Supreme Court rulings on religion in public education. Parents and churches, not public education, bear the responsibility for religious upbringing of children. Schools must refrain from sponsoring religion or doing anything that coerces, even subtly, participation in religious activities.
The terrorists came from nations where there is no separation of church and state. They want a theocracy in which one faith is mandated by government. It would be highly ironic if our response to this threat was to lower our own wall of separation between church and state.
This constitutional barrier has given the United States more individual freedom, religious diversity and interfaith peace than any nation in world history. At this time of crisis, that diversity is a source of great strength, not a weakness. We, as a nation, should not hesitate to protect that wall from attack.
-- Ken W. Poulsen, Tarpon Springs
Re: Pentagon may release false news, Feb. 19.
Did the Fairies of Comedy and Stupidity fly over the Pentagon and scatter some dust? Do the powers in Washington, D.C., really expect thinking persons to believe this strategy?
It is laughable at least to assume that foreign nations do not understand dissemination of false information by the U.S. government as it has been a long-time practice. For anyone to assume that this strategy will be effective after having made it public to the planet only affirms its idiocy.
That the Office of Strategic Influence is headed by Brig. Gen. Simon P. Worden an "astrophysicist who has specialized in space operations" only affirms the lack of U.S. credibility. Yes, he is in outer space because he is surely not grounded in reality. He is busy rolling up all the instruments within the Department of Defense to influence foreign audiences. And what might those be? Black campaigns, white campaigns? Nebulous at best, deceitful for sure and damaging to all.
If anyone is undermining the credibility of the government it is the government itself.
-- Alida Marie Duchene, St. Petersburg
Re: Pentagon may release false news.
After reading about the recently formed Office of Strategic Influence, one can only hope that in abandoning truth, the end justifies the means.
I realize the deceptions are mainly in overseas propaganda. Domestically, however, the OSI could become self-supporting by selling engineered public opinion polls and other disinformation to the eagerly awaiting cable news propaganda networks, Fox, CNN, and MSNBC to help them promote their obvious political agendas.
-- Art Palmer, Largo
Re: Pentagon may release false news.
A recent news release from the New York Times read: "The Pentagon is developing plans to provide news items, possibly even false ones, to foreign media organizations as part of a new effort to influence public sentiment and policymakers in both friendly and unfriendly countries."
It now would appear necessary to include disclaimers on any stories released by the Pentagon. But then, probably this also should apply to corporations, such as Enron, to Congress and the entire executive branch. Oh, well. Perhaps a better solution is to move all "news" to the comic pages and replace it with Doonesbury and Dilbert. No disclaimers necessary.
-- Powell Foster, St. Petersburg
Re: Americans have found no benefit to class warfare, letter, Feb. 18.
I enjoyed the original article by Neal Gabler (Blinded and divided by the American dream, Feb. 10.), but knew that many Americans would just not get it; it would be denied any validity. So I had to respond when a recent letter writer wrote that the "American dream" is not a myth, and that claiming the American people are victims of "national brainwashing" is absurd.
The writer claims that the number of rags-to-riches stories in this country would fill volumes and that he and just about everyone in this country could tell you of at least one success story. That may be so, but who's counting the failures? Who's counting how many people aren't making it in this land of plenty? Do the volumes of success stories outnumber the volumes of people who toil daily for low wages and aren't making ends meet, with no health insurance and little job security? Admittedly, success stories are more glamorous than poverty. Look at the numbers: The minimum wage is $5.15 per hour. Does anyone really believe that a worker can support himself, let alone a family, on wages this low? Consider the number of children living in poverty in this, the supposedly richest country in the world. No other Western industrialized nation has the rates of child poverty as does the United States. This is the real absurdity.
As for national brainwashing, just the fact that the letter writer denies a national brainwashing is no proof that it has not been successful. Many elements of our society have a vested interest in perpetuating the myth of the American dream. It is no accident that in a nation so controlled by the corporate elite that so many people are taken in by this mythology. That "we are all in this as Americans" attitude sounds real good, but it is just not supported by the facts.
For instance, in the last 20 years of unprecedented prosperity, CEO pay rose to more than 500 times that of the average worker in this country.
Additionally, the United States is the only Western industrialized nation with no national health care plan and 39-million uninsured citizens, many of these being working adults and children. As long as the myth of the American dream is defended, only the rich will benefit from class warfare. Absurd.
-- John O. Collins, St. Petersburg
Partisan Democrats who hope to "Enron" the Bush administration might get more than they bargained for if other bankrupt companies are included -- specifically, Global Crossing, which tanked on Jan. 28, and its ties to Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe.
According to the Feb. 11 edition of Business Week, Democrats and Republicans were about evenly divided when it came to receiving campaign finance cash. In addition to maverick GOP Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., got big bucks, to the tune of $250,000 for his party's convention.
I'm not saying that any of this is illegal, but it is pure hypocrisy for the Democrats to claim that the Enron situation is unique to Republicans.
The idea that the Whitewater investigation was bogus or a waste of taxpayer money is belied by the fact that there were some 12 convictions coming out of it, including former Gov. Jim Tucker of Arkansas.
-- Leonard Martino, Tampa
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