If you think money is root of all evil, give yours away

If you think money is rootof all evil, give yours away
EDITOR:
Every so often, out of the ground pops a root-causer, such as the writer of a Sept. 5 letter. Root-causers come in all shapes and sizes, but they tend to exhibit a few common traits. They are usually liberal, spiritual, idealistic, naive and wrong.
The root cause of terror is not poverty, or as Benjamin Creme would have us believe, the disproportionate distribution of wealth, which, by the way, just happens to mirror the disproportionate distribution of work, innovation, productivity and freedom. The root cause of terror, like the root cause of most things in the world, is much more universal and much less complicated. It is acceptance.
When we accept, encourage or celebrate something, we get more of it. Just look around: that simple relational statement is at work in every aspect of our lives. When we cease to stigmatize a behavior, or begin tolerating it, or even embrace it, it takes root and causes all kinds of havoc. The list is a daunting array of societal ills: divorce (no fault), illegitimate births (welfare), abortion (on demand), illiteracy (grade inflation), illegal immigration (Reagan's amnesty), and now terror.
These problems have always been among us, but they remain in the darkest corners of our minds until they are coaxed into the light with excuses, explanations, equivocations, victimizations and self-incriminations. In the case of terror, sometimes the acceptance is overt like the Palestinians dancing in the streets after 9/11 or Saddam Hussein rewarding the families of suicide bombers. Other times its just simple minded self-indulgence like the protesters outside the Republican Party Convention calling Bush a baby killer while the real baby killers were in Beslan slaughtering 160 Russian school children. And sometimes the acceptance is subtle, like the naive (or if they prefer, idealistic), misguided root-causes espoused by Benjamin Creme and his disciples.
But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe the root cause is poverty, American greed and Third World exploitation. If it's that simple, we are in luck because that means the solution is even simpler -- just give it back. The average per capita GNP in Iran (the spawn of terrorism) is $1,810 per year. We'll use that as the benchmark. If you are making more than $1,810 a year, send the difference to the U.N. or the Red Cross or the Red Crescent or a myriad of other international do-gooders who will gladly distribute your ill-gotten gains to those "poor & quot; terrorists. If all the root-causers took the lead, I'm sure the world, humbled by the example, would follow.
And after all this wealth has been sprinkled about and we have brought the world to average, I am sure the terrorists will holster their weapons. Certainly the liberals will be silenced by their new found equality. And the root-causers, they will have to find new causes to root for. As for the rest of us, I suggest that we keep our eyes on the sky because it isn't going to happen without some Divine intervention.
THOMAS MASKELL
Poland
Vote Democratic or 'life'?
EDITOR:
Would it be more Christian to vote for a presidential candidate (non-Democratic) who is pro life, or to vote Democratic, for a candidate who is a Christian, and would OK the Democratic platform's position of pro-abortion? I, and all Christians, should vote "Life."
RONALD P. SKOWRON
Youngstown