Friday, April 27, 2001
The University Daily Kansan
Section A·Page 5
Letters to the Editor America not founded on religion
This is in response to Andrew Pull's letter of April 17 ("America needs religion now").
It's a common myth that the Founding Fathers wanted a religious society. Read the Constitution—God is never mentioned. John Adams himself said, "The Government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion" (Treaty of Tripoli, 1797).
People have pointed out that the phrase "separation of church and state" does not appear in the Constitution. This is true. However, the phrases "separation of powers," "interstate commerce" and "right to privacy" also do not appear in the constitution. These phrases, like "separation of church and state," are merely terms we use to make the Constitution more understandable.
Construction more than just subcontract
People also like to point out that
things such as teaching creationism in public schools are OK because we have freedom of religion. These people seem to forget the rest of the First Amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion." If you are one of the people that supports this, ask yourself. If the Wiccans decided they wanted their creation story taught in school, would you cry "freedom of religion"? Probably not. You'd probably feel marginalized and degraded for believing differently. And you'd probably campaign tirelessly against them. If that's the case, why do you expect everyone else to just roll over while you marginalize and degrade them?
all the other students and taxpayers.
You can't get all of these people to agree on one religious message, so it is best not to say anything at all.
Mary Metzler Tulsa, Okla., junior
Finally, people seem to think those horrible non-Christians will exact vengeance if they so much as see a Bible in someone's room. The other half of the First Amendment comes in here. Your room is your property. What you do with it is your business. However, the classroom is not exclusively your property — it belongs to
Story on gays,religion well done
Bravo to Llvi Regenbaum for her well-written article Monday on gay and lesbian people and their spiritual backgrounds and searches ("Condemned but keeping the faith"). Although the "alternative lifestyle-alternative ways to worship God" headline really grates on the nerves (and is so 1900s), the article itself was balanced and thoughtful.
I'm very pleased to see groups such as A.C.T. in Faith springing up in Lawrence. The more justice-seeking we do, as gay and straight folk, the better our society will be. Keep the faith!
Liz Massey
KU alumna
Phoenix, Arizona
Brendan Woodbury's recent editorial ("Bush's policies on energy use short-sighted," Monday) argues that producing more power is a poor way to handle a power shortage.
Energy efficiency not a cure
The editorial board's proposed alternative is to produce more energy-efficient appliances, thus using less power instead of generating more. It says that Americans are willing to pay a higher price for such appliances but that manufacturers oppose them because they are more costly to build.
How do profits shrink if the selling price rises along with the cost to produce? Because the problem cannot lie with the people, the editorial seems to go to great lengths to blame big business instead. It offers no information on how much energy-efficient devices really cost and assumes that they are feasible and that malevolent corporations are keeping them from us.
Does anyone wonder why the state hardest hit by power shortages
(California) is also the state that most consistently follows the editorial board's views? If we accept that no amount of industry regulation is too much, that any and all problems must be the fault of private enterprise and that the environment is always more important than human life, we'll run out of power. To list all the ways that we have strangled the power industry with regulations would take a book, not a letter. That book is A Time for Truth, by William E. Simon.
Simon was energy czar during the energy crisis of the 1970s, and his views on energy are vastly illuminating; I suggest you check it out.
Colorado Springs, Colo., senior
Columnist disaqreed, not racist
Journalism faculty member and all-around rable-rouser Mike Cuenca accused columnist Andrew Marino of racism ("Columnist didn't do research," Monday) because of
Marino's Friday column ("Principles, not passion, will bring end to racism"). Cuenca accused Marino of failing to understand the issues.
The irony is that Cuenca misunderstood Marino's column. Cuenca claimed Marino argued against evaluating minority faculty on the basis of merit — but that is precisely what Marino advocated. Cuenca's attack was launched not at Marino but at the ideas of his friend and fellow troublemaker, Raymond Pierotti.
Really, Cuenca's ground for calling Marino a racist is that Marino disagreeed with Cuenca. Apparently anyone who bothers to think for oneself and comes to a different conclusion than Cuenca is a racist. Cuenca can think so, but I think that puts his position against the University in a very different light. Thanks, Professor Cuenca, for showing us your intolerance; it clarifies a great deal of the stink you've caused in recent years.
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