Letters | Dougherty wrong on vouchers

ON SEPT. 7, you published an op-ed by John Dougherty on school vouchers. Your Sept. 17 Bill of Rights editorial inspired me to respond.

Mr. Dougherty suggests coercing people of other (or no) faiths to subsidize Catholic schools. I realize parochial schools spend a lot of time on the sanitized history of the Catholic church. They need to commit more time to U.S. history.

Many people came to the New World to escape being forced to belong to or financially support a state-endorsed church. They included the Pilgrims, Quakers and Catholics.

Some colonies didn't learn and reinstituted state-sponsored churches. Knowing the colonies could never agree on a single denomination, our wise founding fathers separated church and state. Individuals could pursue their own religion without state interference. The government could operate without religious interference.

For years, I'd thought it was Hitler or Lenin who claimed if he got control of a child, the man was his. It was relatively recently that I learned it was a Jesuit concept. (And we accuse radical Muslims of brainwashing their youth into hatred of other faiths.)

Tax money can't subsidize schools promoting a specific religion. Mr. Dougherty's suggestion ignores the Constitution. If he wishes to inculcate children in this way, he's obligated to do it on his own dime. I know what my Irish Catholic relatives and friends would say about their tax money being used for vouchers to Islamic schools.

James R. Smith, Elkins Park

Revisionist movie history

Re Michael P. Tremoglie's op-ed on "Hollywood's War":

Being anti-war is not equal to being anti-American. Any reasonable person must acknowledge that you can disagree with the government policies that got us into this Iraq conflict without wishing harm to America.

Tremoglie takes issue with statements by filmmaker Brian De Palma, and dismisses De Palma's intelligence by facetiously asking, "Does Brian De Palma know that Vietnam was the longest war in American history?" Does Michael Tremoglie know that Vietnam was never declared a war by Congress? Apparently not.

But it is Tremoglie's account of three older Hollywood films, "Pride of the Marines," "The Memphis Belle" and "The Purple Heart" that are most puzzling. He claims these films were not censored by Franklin Roosevelt as if that has anything to do with anything. Roosevelt was too busy trying to rescue America from the Depression and deal with the start of World War II to worry about how Hollywood was portraying his image.

But the final straw was Tremoglie's claim that anti-war liberals are engaged in a misinformation campaign. Surely, he jests. Who kept hammering at the idea of Iraq possessing WMDs and pushing a direct link between Saddam Hussein and 9/11? It wasn't us liberals. We asked for proof and were told to shut up and support the president. Look where that's gotten us.

Michael McGonigle, Philadelphia