Respect our democracy
Donald J. Trump was found guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. The prosecution presented detailed evidence that Mr. Trump had concealed payments to a porn star. In addition, the evidence showed Mr. Trump had an agreement with the National Enquirer to suppress any negative information on Mr. Trump prior to the election.
A jury of 12 ordinary United States citizens listened to the testimony and concluded he was guilty of the charges. That is how our judicial system operates. No one is above the law. The verdict is in. Now you may like the outcome of the trial, or you may not, but that is how our democracy works.
Yet many of our elected officials seem not to understand how democracy works. These individuals swear their allegiance to the U.S. Constitution, yet they do not respect the jurors nor the outcome. Rep. Mike Simpson stated that the “Democrats have weaponized our judicial system.” That is untrue, Rep Simpson. You just don’t like the outcome. Sen. Jim Risch called it a “mock trial that made no attempt at even the appearance of fairness. This is what we expect from Third World countries.” He didn’t like the outcome either.
But that is not the point. Neither of these politicians respect our judiciary system. Neither of them respects the 12 jurors who worked diligently to come to a unanimous decision. I am ashamed for these officials, and I will remember how they treated our judicial system and our democracy come November.
Heather Stout
Moscow
Founders and religion
In his April 28 Tribune column, Richard Eggleston quotes a prayer from George Washington that historian Worthington C. Ford found to be fraudulent. Washington was the least religious of our founders and I have done a study on this topic at bit.ly/39ytQJS.
Upon leaving office, Washington met with a group of clergy who submitted a number of questions for him to answer. One question was whether he was a Christian. Washington very kindly answered all the questions except that crucial one.
Washington did believe that basic morality was necessary for national unity, but he did not believe that it required an explicit theological basis. Alexander Hamilton wrote the text of Washington’s 1796 Farewell Address, but Washington removed the sentence that morality must be based on a “divinely authoritative religion.”
Eggleston also claims that the founders would agree with him that atheists cannot be moral. However, in a 1787 letter, Thomas Jefferson advised his nephew Peter Carr as follows: “Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of God.”
Jefferson is more humorous in this statement from “Notes on Virginia”: “It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are 20 gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.”
Finally, I offer this assessment from Episcopal Minister Bird Wilson in 1831: “Among all our presidents from Washington downward, not one was a professor of religion, at least not more than Unitarianism.”
Nick Gier
Moscow
