Cutting the baby of liberty in half

A couple of interesting letters in the Pioneer Press. The first stands alone and needs no comment, just thoughtful contemplation.

Why disparage the Bachmanns?

Regarding "Time from a busy schedule" (Oct. 19): A Chassidic Rabbi once asked his child, "Where does God reside?" The child answered, "Wherever they let Him in."

Hitler and Pol Pot never let God into their lives. Sen. Bachmann and her husband welcome God into their lives. Why disparage them?

RABBI MOSHE FELLER
St. Paul

The second deserves some comment, especially the emphasis added portion.

Seems like a no-brainer

John Jordan claims that it is "liberal lefties" who wish to tell people what to think and how to worship ("Today, Bachmann tomorrow, you," Oct. 23). Reality shows it is the fundamentalist religious right that is in the business of telling people what to believe and what to do. They want to tell women what they can do with their own bodies, to deny people the ability to buy legal products, to push their vision of what should be on TV on everyone else (parental controls aren't enough for them), to push a religious belief into the science classroom with intelligent design and to deny people in love the freedom to marry. I don't think I am either right or left but it has become a simple choice — vote left and watch your pocketbook shrink, vote right and watch your freedoms erode and your pocketbook shrink. Seems like a no brainer to me

TIM SMITH
Maplewood.

Smith expresses the ignorance of a lot of people -- that somehow there is a hierarchy between economic rights and personal freedom. There is not. You can’t have one without the other. They are integrally entwined.

Smith also confirms both my faith in the American people and my fear of the majority. I believe Americans still have enough trust in liberty to resist when a person or group treads on personal freedoms of any group or individual. Too few, however, have the character to stand-up to a government that would take away the economic rights of others provided they themselves are not harmed or even receive benefit. In the end, both economic liberty and personal freedom is lost.

Dare we mention again that when the IRS is the final arbiter of proper religious content, religious freedom is non-existent?