LETTERS: RESTORE SCHOOL PRAYER

To the editor:

A disturbing trend seems to be engulfing our nation and threatens to destroy the freedom and liberty we have enjoyed over 200 years. Our founding fathers thought it was important to set aside a day to pray. I believe God heard their prayers and blessed these men with wisdom and insight to write our Constitution.

Our nation has been a Christian nation and followed God, but in 1962 we made the first of many mistakes by removing prayer from schools. Separation of church and state, which isn't in our Constitution, is constantly being used as an excuse to prohibit religious practices that are guaranteed by our Constitution. If our founding fathers believed in separation, why did they put God's name on every piece of money and on so many monuments?

I ask everyone who is old enough to remember what life was like in the early 1960s and before. I remember 1962 as the end of innocence. Since then crime has risen drastically. Our courts are overburdened because of dishonesty and strife. Gangs continue to grow. The divorce rates keeps rising. Movies and television shows aren't fit to watch. Do you see the pattern?

MARTY RICKERSON

Dixon