Letter to the Editor: Prayer is a free exercise for all

Michael Zubick stated that President Obama could have done no greater service to our country than canceling the National Day of Prayer. Is he truly so consumed by his desire to flush religion down the drain?

With such problems as America’s economy, the war against terrorism and natural catastrophes so prominent in our modern world, he believes that the President of the United States of America can do no greater favor than to cancel the National Day of Prayer?

Either he considers America’s president to be an unintelligent derelict, incapable of performing his job, or he has an extreme prejudice against religion which olds precedence over all other problems in the world.

It does not take an intelligent individual to discern that there are more important problems in the world to be dealt with than their own prejudice.

One of his beliefs is that prayer, being a symbol of religion, “should be kept private.”

Either he voices his opinion because he believe something should be done about it, or he simply like letting people know how he feels, though these feelings have absolutely no conviction behind them and are simply fleeting ideas. I assure the latter is not true. yet the enforcement of such an idea, that prayer and other symbols of religion should be kept private, would be a violation of the Constitution. For it says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

The “free exercise thereof ” consists in part of the freedoms of religion and speech.

In his column, Zubick brought up the above excerpt about congress making no law respecting the establishment of any religions. I assume Zubick understands what that means? If not, all it’s saying is that congress is prohibited from establishing a national church. They set up this safeguard to avoid the same persecution that their forefathers underwent over 100 years before them.

I have addressed some of the misconceptions in Zubick’s column “Where Do We Draw The Line?”. Though there is more to discuss, this is supposed to be kept brief.

Justin Straka

Future Ole Miss student

Port Gibson, Miss.