A reader such as Vern Hunt in his letter of July 4 continues a usual misconception, that when calamities affect a country, it must be a judgment on them. I suppose the Greeks must have believed this at Pompeii, the Johnstown flood and numerous other disasters that have occurred throughout history. And, of course, it has often been the Jewish population, get rid of them, and God will bless us again.”
Many groups have been scapegoated throughout history, the latest being gay people. Those “others”, “those people”, are just a few of the more polite expressions used.
Never mind that Mr. Hunt”s letter takes Thomas Jefferson”s words out of context; he was actually referring to slavery one of America”s greatest crimes against their fellow beings. And we were punished not by God, but by a brutal civil war. He also neglected to mention Jefferson”s true opinion about religion. He stated in a letter that he cared not if a person had one god, two gods or no gods. Does that sound like a theocratic government to you?
No, Mr. Hunt, we were never quite the moral nation we like to imagine ourselves to be, certainly not by slaughtering the Indians, pushing them further and further back from our so called civilization, not when we chained human beings making them human chattel, and nor when we sentenced women and children to a lifetime of drudgery in fetid, confined sweat shops. And even today we continue these injustices when we deny people the right to marry those they love, or deny a woman the prerogative to determine the use of her own body.
Harold Riley
Clearlake
