Religion is not the only path to morality

In his recent column, “Armstrong Williams: Politics is a sideshow” (Oct. 4), Armstrong Williams says that “America’s goodness comes not from its elected leaders but from its religious convictions and veneration of God.” I reacted viscerally to that statement. It felt very exclusionary.

I am a Unitarian Universalist. We are a liberal faith with a range of views about God from pagan to atheist, to humanist and Christian. We believe that what we do in the here and now is what is important. I am honored to be part of a congregation of people who are “good,” who strive to work for equality for everyone, who care about the environment, take care of each other and welcome every person who comes through our door.

Our deep commitment does not spring from a belief in God, but a belief in “good.” I certainly believe that we need a “national morality” but disagree with George Washington that this “could not exist without religious principles.” So much harm has been done in the name of religion. It is not the only path to morality.

— Barbara Svoboda, Catonsville

Vance is ready for top job; Walz isn’t

Let’s just start with this. If either U.S. Sen. JD Vance or Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz had to step in to serve as President of the United States who would you want in that position (“Who won the debate between JD Vance and Tim Walz? 5 takeaways,” Oct. 2)? In my opinion, Vance has it all over Walz.

Why would I want a person who tries to make his past more then what it is? Walz claimed to carry weapons in war and to be at Tiananmen Square at the time of the Chinese killing innocent people. Come on, Candy Woodall. He also stated he would build a factory to make longer ladders to scale the wall for the invaders to enter our country.

Then there is abortion and the bill Walz signed into law in Minnesota. He is a socialist and Marxist just like Vice President Kamala Harris and will destroy this country even more than what has happened to it. Senator Vance is not only a vice president but would also be a good president if needed.

— Martin Sadowski, Fallston

The Sun carries water for the Democrats

After reading Peter Jensen’s attack on former President Donald Trump (“Peter Jensen: Stop normalizing Trump’s cruelty, hate and lies,” Oct. 8) and Dan Rodricks’ defense of tax cheating by Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks (“Dan Rodricks: Will tax issue cost Alsobrooks votes as well as cash? I doubt it.” Oct. 9), I could only marvel at the bias shown in the lame stream media.

The same media that told us that Hunter Biden’s laptop was Russian disinformation and has been telling us that President Joe Biden is mentally fit, wonders why they are no longer taken seriously. If we had an unbiased media in this country, Trump would win in a landslide. Instead, The Baltimore Sun and others in the media have become an arm of the Democratic Party.

— Leo Dymowski, Baltimore

Attack on Harris is unfair

After more than a half-century of reading The Baltimore Sun, this is the first time that I’ve felt compelled to respond to a Sun commentary. Armstrong Williams, in his recent column, “Armstrong Williams: Did Kamala Harris’ relationship with her father poison her perception of men?” (Oct. 9), goes into great detail about Vice President Kamala Harris’s relationship with her father.

I assume that what he is reporting is accurate about that relationship. But, he uses the cited facts to ask “Did Kamala Harris extrapolate from her unhappy relationship with her father to all men?” and speculate that “The arms-length relationship Kamala Harris had with Donald Harris in her youth may have coarsened her political persona and poisoned her concepts of masculinity and the paternal role.”

In what way is her “political persona coarsened?” What is the author’s basis for suggesting that she has extrapolated some “unhappiness” to all men and that her “concepts of masculinity and the paternal role” are in some way “poisoned?” Disagree with her policies all you want, but these baseless, sexist attacks are far beneath this newspaper — or at least they were until the Sun’s recent acquisition.

— Dan Katz, Owings Mills

GOP misrepresents Biden’s impact on inflation

I constantly hear Republicans saying that the Biden administration’s policies have caused “rampant inflation.” That is so far from the truth (“US economy continues to power toward a soft landing,” Oct. 8).

They purposely choose to ignore that it was the COVID-19 pandemic’s disruption of the supply chain and then-President Donald Trump’s gross mismanagement of coping with its impact that sent the economy into a tailspin and caused a 9% inflation rate.

That inflation rate has been lowered to its current level of under 3% during President Joe Biden’s term in office.

— Ronald L. Smetana, Taneytown