Your Letters: Thursday

Message to vandals

To the three drunken young men who came into my yard at 2:15 a.m. June 20, breaking my chimes and furniture and hurling it all onto University Drive: Your rite of passage and fun was aimed at my father’s memorial.

Parkinson’s disease destroyed him physically. He liked to sit and watch the cars and listen to the birds. His ashes are in the flower beds. I like to remember him there. Thought you should know.

Sharon Burkey State College

Palin vs. Letterman

The electrifying crowd of 15 talk-radio-instigated protesters marched on David Letterman’s studio with “We are all the Palins!” banners

Curious. Most of the mothers I know fought to protect our daughters and sons from the onslaught of AIDS and venereal disease, educating them about birth control because, though we teach them to wait, some teenagers have sex. Without intended meanness, it is fairly obvious that the Palins are painfully aware of the latter implications.

As a mother and a woman, I abhor what Letterman did; first, because his subject was a child and second because his “joke” demeans us all.

But I equally deplore the angry politics of the far right as represented by the recent protesters and by Sarah Palin herself. After cynically deploying her children during a nasty election campaign, she continues to politically manipulate them through the Letterman episode while pretending to speak for all women and all children. She does not speak for mine, nor does she speak for millions of others.

The irony of her supporters’ “ideas” eludes them all. During their recent screed about women’s rights and protecting “our” children, they referred to Letterman’s wife and 5-year-old child with crude and vulgar language.

We are all Palins? I sincerely hope not.

Marylouise Markle State College

Another perspective

A recent letter exemplifies poor moral reasoning to continue oppressing gays and lesbians.

The writer argues that “our Creator” mentioned in the Declaration of Independence is both the Christian God and the source of our human rights. I invite the letter writer to visit a few facts.

First, there is no mention of any Christian deity in the founding documents.

Second, Thomas Jefferson was a scathing critic of Christianity precisely because “monkish ignorance” limited liberty, reason and virtue.

Third, she should consult the 1797 U.S. Treaty with Tripoli, which unequivocally states that “the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.” It was unanimously approved by Congress and signed by President Adams.

Readers will not find clarity in the Bible regarding human rights. They will, however, find slavery, sexism and genocide justified and celebrated.

Instead, we should see that the rights we enjoy have come about through a process of reasoned compassion that should be extended to all people, including gays and lesbians.

In the end, the letter writer and her sympathizers are doing the very thing she accuses her opponents of doing: twisting the Bible and the founding documents to suit their personal desires.

Peter Buckland State College