I am dismayed at the recent letters by writers who, for some dark and obscure reason, take perverse delight in the recent tragedies in New York and Washington which they use to denigrate area residents who do not subscribe to the same faiths as they do.
These short-sighted prairie ayatollahs have gone too far.
In their overly-simplistic view, they seem to think that people who do not agree with them are Satanists, misfits and intellectual midgets, responsible for nearly all the ills of modern society.
They forget that the term “freethinker” is as all-encompassing as “Christian.” After all, there are many branches of the Christian church, and some of those branches claim that the others offer little hope of “salvation.”
The freethinkers I know feel, as I do, that to survive our society must have behavioral guidelines and laws. We believe in kindness. We believe in raising good and honest children who do not discriminate against those who look or think differently. We mourn the dead of the attack on America. We fly the flag. We donate to charities. We feel the pain of friends and relatives who have been impacted by this tragedy, and we do what we can to help. We see this awful event as on opportunity to unite Americans, not divide them.
So, while some use the recent terrible events to attack those who rightfully feel that the Christian commandments do not belong on City property, I’d have to say that their actions are, well, not really “Christian.”
Donna McMaster
9/24/01