Golding Focuses On Labels Rather Than Substance

To the editors:



David Golding, in his comment of Nov. 2 (“A Defense of Prejudice”), states that he “embraced” his prejudice against voting people with certain religious affiliations into political office. He then justifies his stance by saying that his prejudice is “against ideas, not people.”

I think Golding is wrong. He is prejudiced not against ideas, but against generic labels that are applied to people. If, as he purportedly believes, religious affiliation is such a good predictor of political values, then he might expect that Hillary Clinton and George W. Bush (both United Methodists) might be allies in D.C., or that William Safire and Ellen Goodman (both Jewish) would be in accord on every topic they wrote about. I hope Golding sees that, taking other factors into account, coming to either of these conclusions would be utterly ridiculous. Religious affiliation of any kind is a very dubious ground on which to base such a somber decision as to whom one wants to entrust his or her government.



RUNA ISLAM ’00

East Palo Alto, Calif.

November 2, 2006