Mailbag:

Hanging a plaque in our City Council Chambers that reads “In God We Trust” is not about religion or politics (“Leece: ‘In God’ is about unity,” Aug. 12).

It is a reminder that our country was founded by people seeking religious freedom who relied on God, prayed to God and trusted God to establish our republic.

Many of them gave their lives for this freedom. And it is about young men and women again sacrificing their lives, fighting for our freedom. Most of them on their knees with prayers on their lips.

By coincidence, I heard a man quoting the fourth stanza of our National Anthem, which reads:

O thus be it ever when free-men shall stand

Between their lov’d home and war’s desolation;

Blest with victory and peace, may the heav’n-rescued land

Praise the Pow’r that hath made and preserv’d us a nation!

Then conquest we must, when our cause it is just,

And this be our motto: “In God is our Trust!”

And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave

O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Councilwoman Wendy Leece is not alone in her battle. She has a “multitude” standing with her. God bless her for her courage and bravery, and God bless America!

Anne Sorensen

Costa Mesa

Cartels win in War on Drugs

I would like to inform you and Judge James Gray (“Forest fires: another harm of prohibition,” It’s a Gray Area, Sunday) that the failure of the American judiciary system keeps the War on Drugs alive and well and the drug cartels winners.

How does an individual privately using this property affect the rights of others? Nobody’s rights are affected, just as with drinking alcohol in a controlled environment. Criminalizing marijuana is unreasonable regulation of individual rights and contravenes the 4th and 5th amendments. Government has the authority to make reasonable regulation of individuals’ rights to privacy, to liberty and to property to protect the public from injury.

Why is marijuana still illegal? Because the American judiciary system, by its lawyers and judges, denies equal protection of the 4th and 5th amendments. By claiming marijuana is not a fundamental right, judicial review is the rational basis test. The marijuana laws are rational because no individual rights are affected by the enforcement of criminal laws.

And that is a lie. Otherwise, the courts would have to review these criminal laws by the compelling state interest test, like the Alaska Supreme Court did in 1975.

The right of privacy is also protected by the 4th Amendment, which that court cited in its decision.

The judiciary system of the United States violates the rule of law to keep marijuana illegal. Drug cartels win.

Rule without law is tyranny, and the free press allows it to continue.

Michael J. Dee

Windham, Maine