Letters to the Editor

Our Founding Fathers Had Strong Beliefs

Editor, Times-Dispatch:

I challenge critics to research Benjamin Franklin's comments at the Constitutional Convention where he says, "I have lived, Sir, a long time and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth -- that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an entire empire can rise without His aid?" Franklin goes on to urge the convention to adjourn for prayer and to pray before each meeting, thus establishing a precedent that is still followed in Congress today.

Let's not forget George Washington's words, "It is impossible to govern the world without God and the Bible." The First Amendment's intention was to protect religion from government, not government from religion. And while I'm at it, nowhere in the Constitution is "separation of church and state" even mentioned.

True, this is a country where one has the freedom to either have faith in a higher power or not. I just have to wonder and fear how much longer it will stay that way.

Diane Acors Dalton. Chesterfield.

Organized Labor Has Helped Everyone

Editor, Times-Dispatch:

Taft-Hartley was the first in a series of sweeping and crushing attacks targeting worker solidarity, creating right-to-work states. The presidency of Ronald Reagan followed as he manipulated and mobilized the interests' free-market capital via the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization's strike. Financiers were also integral to the refinancing of New York City, crushing public employees' unions, leading to the upper-middle-class refuge that is now Manhattan.

We must remember that unions operate on a very basic tenet of American mythology: democracy. National Labor Relations Board elections are decided upon by the majority of the workplace. If all of these previous statements have not rung true in Mitchell's mind, I must ask him: Does he have weekends off? Things we consider common sense in the workplace now, such as weekends and the end of child labor, came because workers exercised their collective strength. If he so hates monopolies, then maybe he should first look to the dissolution and abolition of business owners' solidarities -- the IMF, World Bank, G-8, and locally, chambers of commerce.

Justin Hubbard. Mechanicsville.

Maybe Conservatives Just Preach Less

Editor, Times-Dispatch:

It may be that the conservatives in the store at the time of Adams' visit had not found it necessary to post bumper stickers. I am a conservative; I don't have a bumper sticker on my car. Yet I have been known to haunt the aisles of bookstores.

Maybe the bookstore had removed all books of conservative ideology, so there was no need for conservatives to congregate. After all, a conservative would be interested only in conservative books, right? Yet, I'm positive that there are books on many subjects conservatives find interesting. I would bet my NRA membership on it.

Sticker sleuthing would not be complete without investigating public library lots as well. Maybe the bumper sticker count would even out, what with all of the soccer moms whisking their conservative kids to the library to check out, and return . . . why, yes -- books!

Also, we had a recent election in which the "conservative" candidate was soundly defeated. Given the local outcome, it may be expected that any parking lot in town would sport more liberal bumper stickers than conservative.

All this aside, the idea that liberals read more books was put forward, I believe, in explanation of the widely held belief that a liberal news media bias does exist. This was not refuted by Adams. But his attempt to explain a national news community bias, by counting bumper stickers in a local bookstore parking lot, seems a stretch in logic. I would just call it a conservative guess.

Chris Lucas. Chesterfield.