Libertarians for freedom.

My Christmas wish this year is that people stop typing the word libertarian without first doing a modicum of research on what libertarianism means and how it relates specifically to the issue about which they're writing, or maybe even ask a handful of folks who at least call themselves libertarian. The article "Christmas vs. Holiday" (December 25 issue) says that the War Against Christmas "arises from the enmity to all things Christian among atheists, civil libertarians, leftists," etc.

I have no idea of the kind of prestidigitation that was required in this author's mind to believe that libertarians, in general, would be put on the offensive by a "Merry Christmas!" Libertarianism, like all ideologies, has its share of curmudgeons. What makes the biggest difference between the way libertarians handle things that they might find offensive, compared with adherents of most other socio-political ideologies, is that we don't believe that the State has any place preventing behaviors which do not specifically violate negative rights or forcing people to accept said offensive behavior. Here's a crash course in libertarianism. Libertarians do not believe in or advocate the initiation of force as a means of achieving personal, social, political, or economic goals.

I personally think the John Birch Society and small "L" libertarians have much in common and could be great allies.

BRYAN MORTON

Stuart, Florida