LETTER: What fate do we wish for?

Chester Wolf’s “A change of fate” letter is interesting. Normally, I am a data-centric sort who just tries to be a good, reasonable person, staying out of religious matters, well, religiously. But that letter touches on something that’s deeply confusing to me.

If a conservative church-goer votes for a sexist, divisive money-hoarding warhead lover who wants to mine all of creation for personal profit — despite extremely likely resultant serious long-term damage to that creation we’re all supposed to care for — is there a problem? Is there too much straying from early teachings about peace, tolerance and caring for God’s Creation?

Devout Christians voting for someone who wants to restart a global nuclear arms race against the wisdom of decades of anti-proliferation treaties I consider incomprehensible.

There was a similar group of people, leaders in world science, productive, huge global influence. Their economy got hurt, many became poor and stayed poor. They elected someone who promised to bring back manufacturing and a strong military. There were indeed enough new manufacturing jobs to get everyone working again and thus he kept their support despite his administration’s very rough ways. People decided that if they would just be agreeable, toe the line, do what they were supposed to do, then everything would be fine. Sound familiar?

Their manufacturing stayed great until pesky Americans started dropping bombs on them from things named the “Flying Fortress” and “Liberator." Over the next several decades the surviving Americans typically remarked humbly, “We had a duty to do." It worked — Germans prefer peace (while also being prosperous nature lovers).

What happened to that America? We’re an outdoors-loving, generally friendly melting pot with a strong sense of ethics, right? What honestly happened?

Roger Twitchell
York City