Your March 27 Opinion section was excellent. I really appreciated Judith Hurley’s letter. Her views on abortion aren’t mine but she made her case without rancor. So did Kristine Williams in her guest opinion about the benefits diversity could offer this county. Science tells us that we can only survive in a vibrantly diverse gene pool. Unless we collect into ethnic and ideological pockets, one disease can’t wipe us out. My Irish relatives learned the basic gene pool problem firsthand; they put all their faith in potatoes and a famine wiped them out. Many wound up on our shores. America was being sold as a wonderful melting pot with opportunities as wide as the arms of the Liberty statue who welcomed everyone, regardless of creed. Maybe they only meant Anglo Saxons and Europeans.
I waited for the March 30 issue before sending my compliment to Judith and Kristine. I’m glad I did. In that issue Patricia Griffin “commends” Judith’s letter. Then she gives us a few examples of good versus bad choices. Only she doesn’t present them as her opinions but as facts based on her spiritual leanings. To Patricia abortion is, of course, “bad choice.” She even claims the Pro-Choice crowd co-opted the very word “choice” as if it were a web domain. Back to diversity. Unless we truly want to devolve into something like the Taliban, I think we need to stop talking in absolutes as if all the world’s knowledge is collected in whatever holy book drives your beliefs. The God that Patricia and Judith refer to is not my God. Nor is it the God of millions of spiritual people over this country and the world. God bless your crusade, Ms. Hurley, not because I believe in your goals but because I believe in your right to speak of them. You detailed your beliefs without pointing a finger. Ms. Griffin, thanks but I don’t need a list of things that you consider bad or good choices. At 65 I’m old enough to develop my own. We should revel in diverse philosophies, not grind them under a religious boot.
Jerry Tuck
San Andreas
