this is the place in which i live : Joplin, MO . i can not read it without feeling the blood rush to my head and hearing it boil in my ears. here is my response:

I am writing this letter in response to the "What is a Liberal?" editorial by Jim Bates on 8/01/05. I find it interesting that Jim defines liberalism as another word for socialism. The American Heritage Dictionary defines liberalism as a : “political theory founded on the natural goodness of humans and the autonomy of the individual and favoring civil and political liberties, government by law with the consent of the governed, and protection from arbitrary authority. “

Where in that definition is there anything that would lead to hating God or destroying the country? If anything liberalism is exactly what this country was founded on. We are a country founded on the belief that people deserve the chance to be who they are. There is no asterisk in the Constitution. We were not founded to be a haven for the moral majority. We were founded to be a place of freedom and that includes the freedom to chose, the freedom to worship without censorship, and the freedom to love freely. Wanting these things is not destroying the country; it is preserving it as it was meant to be.

So Jim, the next time you want to place blame for the downfall of the America you love so much, look in the mirror. It is people like you who spew hate and mistruths under the guise of morality, and with the use of fear, which have degraded this country. Give me one fact to back up your claim that I, as a liberal, am destroying America, and I will show a hundred more that prove how you, as part of the right-wing-moral-majority, are destroying the very thing this country was built on – freedom. Believing the White House is not the place to define God, love, or choice does not make me a communist, it makes me a true American, a liberal.

Signed,
Amanda Ritter
a God-fearing-America-loving-freedom-exercising-VOTING-liberal