Editor’s moral compass confused
Rayanne Damiano’s response to the offense taken by many readers with the photo of Mr. Bush and “Moral Victory” on the same page (November 11) offended me as much if not more than the cover itself.
This election was not a “moral victory” just because the campaign rhetoric harped on the term ‘moral values.’ Talking about something doesn’t make it so.
Damiano is bewildered when the letters to the editor (November 18) cite numerous reasons why moral values did not gain ground. The immoral war in Iraq, condemned by Pope John Paul II, is only one glaring example of the lack of morality held by the current administration. Perhaps a cover photo of troops in Iraq using vehicles protected only by plywood and sandbags instead of armor would have been more appropriate. The caption could have read: “Moral Victory?”
The concerns of the Catholic Church, especially in the area of social justice, were dealt a severe blow by the outcome of the 2004 presidential election. Bush’s decisions in the coming four years will demonstrate quite clearly what worries so many readers of this diocesan newspaper.
Alice J. Brown
East Brunswick
No candidate supported the ‘law of love’
The law of love (the mark of Christianity) required me to use the write-in vote of “none of the above” for the office of the president on Nov. 2.
War, the death penalty and abortion are all rejections of the law of love and for this reason I could not vote for either Bush or Kerry.
The election is now over, but we can still publicly express our vote for the law of love by hoisting or displaying a banner with the words “peace on earth and good will toward all men (all humanity).”
Ray Kalaninkas
Manalapan
*The attached/referenced article was originally published in The Catholic Spirit, the official newspaper of the Diocese of Metuchen, and is protected under U.S. and international copyright law