SYMBOLS AND POT: ARE WE FREE?

Two items from Sunday, Nov. 29:

Kevin Taylor's careful parsing of the American past would be fine were
there not an organized and highly partisan "crusade" to "brand"
America as Christian. We can recognize that America has become a much
more pluralistic and diverse culture without insulting the dominantly
WASP Founders and early Americans.

We insult them when we forget that they rejected putting the religious
brand on this nation and explicitly founded a secular civil state.
There is no American Christian Church composed of the not so different
forms of British American Christianity and their European cousins.
When the Culture War crusaders cease and desist, a cross in a public
place can once again be a reminder of history rather than a symbol of
religious/cultural warfare.

Second: George Will is technically correct in his concern over "the
hypocrisy of medical pot." But he misses the mockery of the law in
the War on Pot.

Medical marijuana is a token bow to rationality and humanity against
the theme of "the law's an ass." It is the illegality of pot that
mocks any integrity or nobility in the Law. It is safer than beer and
good medicine for people with pain. We should be able to grow our own.

Land of the free?

Don Caughey

Corvallis