READERS RESPOND

AT ISSUE: Columnist Steve Smith, who supports the state’s voucher

initiative, wrote about the role of religion in education (“Public

schools can survive a statewide voucher program,” June 24). Some readers

disagree with Smith’s position.

Other people’s gods do not scare me. It’s the believers who believe

their God should be my God that scares me.

Wendy Leece and Steve Smith conveniently overlook the reality that the

Christian Ten Commandments is not the only religious dictum with any

merit and value.

Just as Smith’s, my child is in public school. Unlike Smith, I will

not vote for or support vouchers in any way. Religious freedom gives us

all the right to participate in any religion we choose without fear of

condemnation and persecution. It does not give religions the guarantee

that my tax dollars should support others’ religion. And that is what

vouchers are. My tax dollars supporting another child’s religious

education. Vouchers are, in a sense, welfare for the rich. Those who have

money and whose children are already in private schools will benefit from

this government subsidy. Those without money who choose a private school

will find it’s not enough to cover all costs. Costs they still can’t

afford.

Our tax dollars should and must go to public education where all

children are accepted regardless of race, religion, intellect, income or

handicap. To state that we have no choice in public education is

ludicrous. We have the choice to participate, the join the PTA, to work

with our children’s teachers and principals and to be involved with the

school board influencing their decisions. These are all well-educated

individuals who work hard to help our children. They deserve our support.

Most of them belong to religions they support, yet they are wise enough

to understand that the children they work with are from many religious

beliefs.

I support our public schools. I’ll vote no on vouchers. Everyone is

allowed their personal beliefs, but I will not support their beliefs with

my money.

REBECCA DAILEY

Costa Mesa

I vividly remember December of 1963, when I was a first-grader in an

Anaheim public school. My class had just finished days of Christmas

activities, decorating the classroom, gift exchange and singing dozens of

songs.

The worst part came when my teacher announced we would sing one

Hanukkah song just for me. More than 30 5- and 6-year-olds turned to

stare at me, exposed now as the only non-Christian in my class.

Tears of embarrassment and rage streamed down my 5-year-old cheeks. I

resented the tyranny of the majority, forcing me to participate in

activities with no connection to my faith. My classmates and teacher were

oblivious to the fact that everyone was not just like them.

This is why the God of the Christian majority has no place in the

public schools; the God of Steve Smith is by no means the same God that

all Orange County school children--nor all Orange County

taxpayers--worship. If your family moved to India, Saudi Arabia or China

in pursuit of a better life, would you want the majority religion imposed

on your children?

Look around any Orange County classroom and you will see in the

children’s faces what has made our country great --those striving for a

better life and freedom from the tyranny of the majority are just the

ones who have struggle to get here. This is our strength.

Worship as you like in your home, neighborhood or church. Give thanks

to God that you live in a country where you are free to worship (or not

worship) in your own way. But don’t let the majority impose its version

of religion on our youngest citizens--not in our country.

ADELE CANETTI-WINTER

Corona del Mar

With all due respect to Steve Smith, and as a practicing Christian for

23 years, I’ve grown tired and cynical of my fellow Christians who

continue to lobby for the infusion of a particular faith into the public

schools. I’m beginning to believe that the folks who want to paper the

walls of our classrooms with the Ten Commandments (a fine document, by

the way), pad curriculum with creationism, or promulgate prayer in public

school settings do so because of their own inadequacies or the failings

of the church to instruct and encourage the faithful.

Look, God (any god) no more belongs in public schools in any

formalized way than algebra or the humanities should be the focus of

Sunday sermons. The classroom is for imparting to young generations the

fundamental truths and facts of mathematics, reading and the sciences. We

don’t teach “Creationism I” the classroom precisely because God “may have

made us.” We teach mathematics not because two and two “may” be four. It

is four.

The classroom for instructing our children in the elements of faith is

our churches, cathedrals, synagogues and homes. Why must it also be in

the public schoolhouse?

So long as our Supreme Court interprets the Establishment Clause of

the 1st Amendment as an implicit prohibition against the advancement of

any religion within publicly funded institutions we should, as Romans

13:1 instructs, submit ourselves “to the governing authorities, for there

is no authority except that which God has established.”

BYRON DE ARAKAL

Costa Mesa