Reponse to January 20 Express News letter to the editor

Durand Waters’ letter “Losing our Republic” seems to pin the blame for the nation’s ills on the roughly 17% of the public who aren’t Christian or Jewish. It’s awfully arrogant to claim that Christians and Jews have a monopoly on morality when we have such examples as the disgraced Ted Haggard, Jim Bakker defrauding his flock and the Catholic Church hiding child molesters.

If there’s any small minority that can be blamed for the loss of the Republic it’s the 1% super rich like the Koch brothers who through their direct and indirect campaign donations and lobbying have suborned the government that is supposed to be, as Abraham Lincoln famously stated in the Gettysburg Address, “of the people, by the people and for the people”.

Waters asks if there’s any better way to pledge allegiance to the Constitution than by placing our hand on the Bible? The answer is of course that there is, especially if you’re one of the 17% that is moral without being Christian or Jewish. On the other hand what good is that pledge if the “monied interests” that Andrew Jackson feared would overwhelm the nation are the real masters.