Letters, Faxes, E-mails

To the Editor:
One of our recent authors wrote to our editor and lamented how horrible America is and how we should not look down our noses at China because we are no better. There are formidable problems in America and there will always be difficulties when people coexist. However, to put communist China on the same page as America concerning basic human rights may be a lack of understanding of history.
It is estimated that, since the communist revolution in China, 100 million Chinese people have died at the hands of their own government. What was their great crime? They were not dedicated communists. This godless government will not allow any open defiance of the state (an interesting side note: the largest Christian church in the world is underground in China with 100 million dedicated believers and growing at a rate of at least 10,000 per day.)
It is estimated that communist Russia, under Stalin and Lenin, exterminated 60 million of their own precious people. What was their great crime? They did not toe the line of the Bolshevik way of thinking.
Yes, America has gone to war. We enslaved people who were brought to our shores. We fought with Native Americans and took lands and destroyed families. However, I am proud that our country is trying to make some kind of amends. That shows heart and an understanding of our own hypocrisy.
However, the fact that we are attempting to make amends tells me that there is a fundamental understanding of the value of all people regardless of nationality, beliefs or moral or political persuasion. This cannot be said of the aforementioned regimes.
Our founding fathers said these rights of equality were bestowed on us by our creator. Communism says all rights are bestowed on people by their totalitarian government. If equality, according to our form of government, is bestowed upon us by God, then no government can usurp that right. There are fundamental differences in our view of the world that are so vast it can hardly be enumerated here.
Is it not grand that we can write what we think in the News-Star? You ought to cherish it. If you wrote this in China, we may never hear of you again.
J. Clifton Briscoe
Shawnee