gotta love the haters...

so ever since i sent my letter to the editor to my hometown's newspaper, i've been obsessively checking the newspaper's website online to see if my letter has made it to print. so far, no dice. but i did come across this little gem while perusing the archive of the letters to the editor:

A response to the ACLU

Thursday, August 04, 2005

To the editor:

Here is my response to a membership solicitation letter I received from the American Civil Liberties Union.

Ms. Nadine Strossen, President, ACLU:

I don't need to list my address because you already have it. Where you obtained my name, God only knows, but I'm very sorry that you have obtained it because I detest your organization due to the fact that it is an atheistic, communistic organization that is attempting to destroy America in any way and by any means that it can. You will not succeed. Your organization is becoming more and better known for its opposition to our American way of life and millions of people here are aware of the ridiculous things you preach. I am one of them.

Your organization has attacked the Patriot Act as though it is an unnecessary measure. Perhaps before the war on terror it would be. But as "Of Mice and Men" describes, you do what you must when required. The Patriot Act is not a threat to any legitimate and law-abiding citizen. Your intent is to undermine our country by offending and frightening our uneducated and unenlightened people to gain strength in numbers. I am not one of them.

The invitation also states that the Bush administration is expected to push his personal religious beliefs. Doesn't the ACLU read the books and newspapers that are produced in this country? The President's beliefs are America's beliefs as a whole; witness the results of the last two Presidential elections. Again, I say, the ACLU is attempting to turn America into an atheistic and communistic country. I will not abide by these beliefs.

The ACLU intends to defend reproductive rights by defending abortion. There is no need to defend abortion if people would not participate in sex except as it was intended, inside of marriage and not as though we are still living in the sixties. Sex is a sacred part of marriage and is not intended for use outside of marriage whether the ACLU believes it or not. Again, this is where the ACLU is opposed to religious beliefs and where it advocates the destruction of American religious rights and values along with the American way of life. I will not agree with the ACLU ideals.

Yes, I hope the religious people in this country will expand their grassroots efforts to institutionalize discrimination against same sex couples, to put prayer back in our schools, to limit abortion and to encourage religious beliefs in our entire country. Our country was founded on a firm belief in God and freedom of religion. The ACLU would eliminate both and I say again, turn our country into an atheistic, communistic country. I will not join your organization.

(name omitted by me)

Pascagoula

i mean, come ON! are you KIDDING ME?!?! i know that people honestly feel this way. i know that this was a heartfelt letter from a man (whose name i totally recognize -- pascagoula is a tiny town) who seriously believes what he says. and i know that the ACLU and other like organizations get hate mail like this all the time. but what frustrates me is that this guy is just plain wrong.

so, the ACLU is "athiestic" and "communistic"? do people not understand how much good organizations like the ACLU do? do people really think that entertainers like rush limbaugh and bill o'reilly are better for this country than groups that are true to the principles of the constitution?

you know, the whole reason we have separate branches of government and a system of checks and balances is because democracy on its own does not work. if democracy were the only system available to us, this new world order that the author of the above letter describes would be the world in which we live. ugh. get me my passport -- i'm going to france! the ACLU is out there trying to make sure that, among other things, folks who get chewed up and spit out by the democratic process are still able to take advantage of their constitutionally promised rights. that's what the judicial system is for. that's why we have the supreme court. because sometimes the majority gets it wrong.

the above letter is an appalling example of how wrong the majority can be.