The Danbury letter and common sense. (Letters).

As I read the article on the Danbury letter, ("Priority Mail," January Church & State), I kept thinking how odd that the central issue was what Thomas Jefferson's opinion "really was," rather than what common sense really dictates. Jefferson clearly, to his credit, spoke up for common sense. But by our mentally binding the issue of separation of church and state to the perceived opinion of one historic personage, however revered, we divorce principle and truth from their true and fundamentally indisputable authority --dispassionate, obvious, reason.

Whether with tongue in cheek or with covert sentiment, I could say, "I might tolerate some influence on the state by MY church and religion, but GOD FORBID FOREVER it be ANYONE ELSE'S!"

In the interest of fairness, however, I would forgo the universal benefits I believe mankind would garner from greater influence of MY religion as a small price for insurance that society be forever shielded from still more of the horrors of greed, bigotry, bloodshed, war, torture, and terror for which virtually all the "old time" religions have so often been and continue to be the ready pretext.

--Tobey Llop
East Amherst, N.Y.