Dear editor:

First I want to congratulate Justine Larsen on her excellent article in defense of the rights of women. Instead of the Equality State I believe it would be more accurate to call us the Paradoxical State. On one hand we say we stand for rugged individualism. That is, no one or government can tell us what vaccines to get, what guns we can have or how we can carry them and so on. But wait, on the other hand, we have equality unless we happen to be female, then our body belongs to the state (government) and it is ruled by some religion we may or may not believe in, and we forget that religion, and there are many, is faith and not fact. Or we are a state that stands for individual rights, that is unless we happen to be parents who believe it is our right and responsibility to determine what books our, not other’s, children should read or not read. It is unfortunate that we seem to easily forget about the rights of others.

Martin Garhart

Powell