J. Gil's letter concerning Luke Fevin's take on the Right to Life March that included even preteens apparently, is a total misreading of the concept of
'freedom of religion," which certainly doesn't include freedom from disagreement or criticism. His take also includes a logical contradiction: why does it seem unseemly to J. Gil that a public event that mobilizes children, and against which a very good case can be made on the basis of ethics and morality, cannot be criticized, but he can criticize those who do criticize?
Freedom of speech is a basic right in a democracy, and one of the freedoms on the basis of which the Second World War was fought. It is especially important at this time when history is being rewritten by power and Western imperialism, including the recent unprovoked and illegitimate attacks on a half dozen Muslim countries, is constructed as both necessary and good.
Public input is not only desirable, it is absolutely necessary when media is concentrated in very few hands and usually reflects the views and interests of
elites, of which the Catholic church is one aspect.
Gil's exemption of religion from that purview is unwarranted and dangerous.
Doris Wrench Eisler, St. Albert
