My letter to the editor in response to another LOE in my hometown paper

I usually refrain from answering letters to the editors written by imbecils, but this one threw out awful soundbite and stereotype of liberals possessed by today's conservatives that I couldn't let it go unchallenged. It was in my hometown paper. I no longer live there, but for some reason, I couldn't stand the notion of someone so naive and offensive in my area going unchallenged, so I wrote it in.

Here is the original letter (read it at your own risk):

http://www.somdnews.com/stories/112807/reclet110930_32092.shtml

________________________________________________________________________

Here is my response:

________________________________________________________________________

Dear Editor:

Frank J. Larson's November 28, 2007 Letter to the
Editor ("This election will be a battle of those who
believe and those who do not") is indicative of a
greater disturbing yet increasingly prevalent school
of thought in this country of "us versus them". Sadly,
Mr. Larson has chosen to inject notions of God and
people's sense of personal faith in an attempt to
further that gap.

It is certainly true the United States is indeed a
country which is predominately made up of those in the
Christian faith. That is nothing at all to be ashamed
of and should in fact be celebrated, just as other
countries may be predominately Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim
or whatever religion may be the prevailing religion of
that nation.

However, what Mr. Larson fails to realize is that
religion ultimately involves one's deepest held
personal beliefs, not one's nationality. For those of
us who do believe in God (including myself and
presumably Mr. Larson), we believe that God will
inevitably judge the actions of persons, and not
countries. Simply put, God sees no man-made borders in
his creation. Therefore, to allow this country to make
decisions on a carte blanche basis, whether they
ultimately be right or wrong, and only then claim a
sense of moral supremacy for whatever we may do
because we ourselves profess to be "One Nation under
God" puts us as a nation at greater risk for error and
alienation from our peers on the global stage.

So much has been made by people of Mr. Larson's school
of thought that God must remain on our nation's side.
However, in the end it is not whether God is on our
side, but rather whether we are on God's side. In
other words, do we truly seek to protect human rights,
the rule of law, and peace among nations? Do we
recognize that the best way to spread democracy is by
creating a shining example for others to see as
opposed to through brut force and violence? In recent
years, many Americans have grown concerned that this
country's leaders have strayed from these ideals, and
we should not be ostracized or demonized for having
such concerns.

Last but not least, Mr. Larson's insinuation that
those who consider themselves to be liberal or
progressive (which are fluid, loosely-defined concepts
in and of themselves) see the Stalinist-era Soviet
Union as some sort of idyllic utopia for this country
to model is not only highly despicable and insulting,
but it is just plain wrong. If one were to ask any
individual who had suffered immense persecution under
the Stalinist regime (such as members of my own
immediate family) whether any school of political
thought in this country even remotely resembles the
brutality of that government, chances are he or she
would be highly offended at such a false comparison.

Sincerely,

XXXXXXXXX

When I read crap like that original LTE, so often, I get no farther in reply than "Why do you ignorant pigfuckers feel compelled to print this fact-free fascist shit?" before deleting the email.

Thank you for having the patience to express these thoughts in a coherent, non-threatening, rational manner. Maybe I'll try again sometime soon.

As a local paper, they'll pretty much print anything submitted to them in the interests of taking up space. Hopefully my out-of-town address won't detract them from printing my response. I added to the editor I was a former resident, so hopefully that would give me some creedence.

...Is that "the Christian faith" in this country isn't a monolith either, and some of the nastiest fighting over religion in this country is between different Christians.

And to respond to the original, we have not always been "one nation, under God". (We somehow managed to win WW2 without "under God" in the pledge -- it was added in the 50's). What we HAVE always been, is E pluribus unum, "From many, one".

...but I decided to keep it relatively brief in the interest of space and time. Good point though.

The fact is, there is a great difference between being a "Christian nation" (i.e. a theocracy, which we are not, as per the terms of our own consititution) and being a nation where the majority religion is Christianity. As someone who is a Christian and who goes to church every Sunday but knows it is because of my own deepest and most private personal faith beliefs and not any sort of sense of national, governmental obligation, I understand this. This numbskull obviously did not. But whatever.

of what has taken place over the last seven years. It's already the beginning of the end, and this man is so blinded by his loyalty to the Republican party, he cannot see it.

"...Remember, anytime any part of our Bill of Rights along with the rest of our Constitution is infringed or encroached upon, disobeyed or violated in any way, will spell the beginning of the end of our great country that our forefathers placed in our care."

Mission accomplished. Very sad times for what used to be the United States of America.

That guy is a nutjob. And sadly, not alone. There are way too many like him. As frustrating as it is, we need to keep shutting them down.

Great LTTE.