To the Editor:

This is in response to Sharon Bastille’s letter (“Rejoicing In Truth, Justice And The American Way,” Sept. 15-21).

I have long known Sharon and I know she and her family are good people. Her letter concerns me because I see so many decent people, like her, falling under the spell of the Tea Party.

It is chilling that she refers to herself and others who believe like her as “we the people.” Do the rest of us, who disagree, not count as people? Why does the majority of Americans who elected President Obama not count as “the people”? By not bowing to the demands of the Tea Party? This seems like ignorance.

I support President Obama for reasons similar to Sharon’s for opposing him. For truth: I hope he will diminish the tradition of deceit that has largely been the policy of prominent Republicans since President Nixon, and continues with Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck. For honor and justice: I hope he will stop the use of torture, and favoritism toward the richest people. For the American way: I hope he will stop the trampling of Constitutional rights that President Bush championed, and the rise to power of the corporate elites.

Consider the bald-faced lies currently being spread:

President Obama is not a citizen.

President Obama is a socialist.

President Obama is a Muslim.

President Obama is a Nazi.

So many unfounded absurd lies about one man: it suggests deep and irrational hatred. Respectable people, who do not want to be branded as racists, should take care to repudiate such statements.

I also believe in Jesus Christ, “the only name given by which men may be saved,” and I support President Obama as the one most nearly representing Christian values. He can’t save America, but he may help preserve some of the best in it for a while longer. I object strongly to Glenn Beck rewriting passages in the Bible to fit his political agenda and thinking he has the authority to “excommunicate” churches that teach otherwise.

Even if the rich don’t always cause poverty (referencing President Reagan), God obliges them to share with the poor. We can disagree about the stimulus, but God demands that we give more than fond wishes. Until someone steps up (Republicans?) to guarantee the necessities of life to the poor, I support whatever it takes in taxes or welfare. Sometimes the American way is not the Christian way and we must choose which we prefer.

Democrats aren’t elitist, but the Tea Party is elitist when it excludes those like me from “the people.” President Obama doesn’t act like a Nazi; but the Tea Party does act like Nazis when they shout down opponents in debates. The Tea Party has at least one similarity to a satanic scheme: it accuses its opponents of what it does itself.

All decent people should stay away from the Tea Party.

Carroll Boswell

Potsdam