What letter writer may have missed

THE EDITOR: In a recent letter to one of the daily newspapers, the writer espoused the rights and responsibilities of parents, their value systems, the need for children to turn to their parents as their primary influencers and the belief that the voices of parents are the most powerful.

I even checked a few of the websites suggested by the writer. As expected, we can all guess who are the groups that administer these sites and the information or, in my opinion, the misinformation contained therein.

With all the emphasis on the importance of parents having the right to choose, it is possible that the writer missed the irony.

What about parents who are liberal or secular? Do they get a choice as well? Or are they expected to fall in line?

At every school in this country, prayers are recited at least once a day, sometimes two or three times a day. So what about the parents who are agnostic or atheist? Are their voices being heard?

I recall that a few years ago a teacher in a denominational school was caught on audio threatening to kill a student and his family because they identified as atheists and did not believe what she believed. In essence, they did not follow her choice.

And what about the parents who recognise a certain struggle that their child may be experiencing and are seeking various methods of assisting? Doesn’t the call to ban particular books remove their choices? Not everyone believes that something can be prayed away.

Sometimes people live in a bubble and feel that everyone thinks the same way that they think. They seem to believe in the rights of parents to choose only if they are the ones allowed to make the choices for every other parent. It is interesting that they never seem to make the choice to ban all of the religious books that are filled with, and sometimes glorify, violence, genocide, rape, incest, etc.

In this country we have imported many things from the US. It was only a matter of time before we imported the fear and prejudice of a particular political group from that country.

T RAHAMUT

Chaguanas