It's one thing to have Dan Savage and the liberal intelligentsia mocking you mercilessly, it's wholly another, however, to have nuns writing letters to the editor rhetorically rapping your knuckles for setting a bad example for your children:
As a teacher for the Diocese of Pittsburgh for 14 years, one important lesson I learned was that no matter what I said to the child, whatever the parents said superseded my message. What parents say and how they live sends a message stronger than any teacher's voice no matter what the issue.
Sen. Rick Santorum and his wife have taught their children a powerful lesson on civic responsibility by refusing to pay any tuition money to the Penn Hills School District for their children who attended the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School ("Penn Hills Loses Bid to Charge Santorum," July 12). Released from that payment on a technicality shows that even an upstanding, moral gentleman like Sen. Santorum teaches his children the following lessons:
1) Take advantage of the system whenever you can.
2) The little guy pays while the rich and powerful guy gets away with it.
3) As a Catholic, you have no obligation to pay your share to the common good in spite of Catholic social doctrine.
Finally, I am shocked that our religious leaders who see Sen. Santorum as some sort of faith-and-morals hero have not spoken up on this issue at all.
SISTER LIGUORI ROSSNER
Sisters for Christian Community
Bloomfield
In some ways, Sister Rossner gets Santorum much more dead-to-rights than we do. What's vicious and base about the Republican party isn't their opposition to choice or homosexuals or cultural freedoms -- those are legitimate, genuine moral opinions that, though wrong, are fairly held by most of their advocates. What's really gross about contemporary Republicans is exactly what Rossner raps Santorum for: their belief that the rich, in some fundamental way, deserve to take more from society and pay less for the privilege, and that the poor can and should be left holding the bag. It wouldn't be so galling if the very same folks clutching bibles and protesting that piety demands marital discrimination weren't the same ones chucked the Holy Book out the window of the SUV while screeching into Wal-Mart to benefit from global labor exploitation.
