Three cheers for Devra Kitterman and her publication, on landscaping ("Dyed mulch and other Roland Park garden sins," June 18). I urge her to forward her publication to the Greenspring Valley.
We too resent tree removal for McMansions with parking lot-size driveways, mulch mania and other unnatural designs. In areas that are so lush with natural landscape and habitat, why do people insist on altering the landscape?
Let's keep the "park" in Roland Park and the "green" in Greenspring Valley.
Wendy Rurka
Garrison
Separation protects freedom of religion
Thomas Sowell's column "Laying waste to liberal spin" (Opinion * Commentary, June 15) states that "there is absolutely nothing in the Constitution about a `separation of church and state'" and that "liberal judges have twisted the First Amendment's phrase about `free exercise of religion' to mean the opposite - that you are not free to exercise your religion if atheists or members of non-Christian religions say they are offended."
But the reason the Founding Fathers included as one of only 10 amendments to the Constitution the phrase, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion," was to ensure individual liberty and rights to all people to worship as they choose.
After centuries of religious persecution by established national churches in Europe, it was critical to establish freedom of religious choice as a core doctrine.
And we, as Americans, have freedom of choice about whether to worship or not, and how we want to worship.
The reactions Mr. Sowell is referring to by "liberal judges" are not an issue about denying anyone's individual rights to "exercise their religion," but a fear, perhaps, expressed by many that one segment of our country's population wants to mandate how everyone else should govern their lives.
E. Diane Champe
Eldersburg
