Your Oct. 9 editorial “When Harry met Satan” is long overdue. I often wonder if those who seek to have the Harry Potter books banned have even read them.
Perhaps they missed the part where Harry and his friends celebrate Christmas?
Unfortunately it appears we are living an age of increasing intolerance, an unhealthy return to dualism, in which everything is either good or bad, right or wrong, or “you are for us or against us.”
Even a letter on the same page as your editorial admonishes people to stop criticizing the president and rally behind him because other countries’ leaders are undermining “the Christian policies on which this nation was founded.”
I am not aware of these “Christian policies.”
Even a quick review of our history shows that our founding fathers constructed an absolutely amazing form of government intended to protect us from the types of religious persecution that prompted our forebears to flee from Europe to settle the Colonies in the first place. They valued education and reason. Indeed they created a very secular government, which allows all religions to follow their beliefs without interference from the government or each other.
Harry Potter has much to say about individual responsibility, courage and tolerance. The books need to be on the shelves of our public libraries for those who wish to learn these lessons.
