THE HEALTH OF SOCIETY

Gerard Baker wrote in The Weekly Standard about rising anti-semitism, the Van Gogh murder and the removal of Rocco Buttiglione's name as the proposed justice commissioner by the European parliament. Buttiglione, a highly regarded conservative, who also happens to be a devout, churchgoing Catholic, caused an outrage when he told reporters that he agreed with his church's basic teachings on homosexuality, the sanctity of marriage, and abortion. Buttiglione had made it clear his own religious views could not and would not affect his capacity to enforce European law. That was not enough for the politically correct majority. Baker further states that Europeans should " look a bit harder at the decay in their own societies. Even as the authorities go to absurd lengths to justify politically correct tolerance of those intent on destroying the very foundations of free societies; even as they seek, by contrast, to eliminate traditional Christian values and principles from European public discourse; even as they try to block American attempts to bring about a better, more enlightened, world for the people of Iraq and the broader Middle East, their own society is sliding steadily into an ugly maelstrom of intolerance, fear, and hatred."

In my lifetime I have seen our own nation slipping further into this same ugly maelstrom. It is my fervent hope that our citizens are waking up to this and for this very reason reelected President Bush. Unless we as a nation safeguard our ideals, faith and heritage, we will end up with as sick a society as we see in Europe. We can tolerate differing views and lifestyles so long as we do not let the minority of extreme liberals to obliterate our rights as a majority to hold to what is important to us. We do not have a state sponsored religion, but freedom to practice our faith is being eroded by those who believe political correctness must make us hide any evidence of the underlying principles on which this country was founded.