I am sorry to inform Ms. Campbell (Letters, Dec. 8) that I will be exercising my rights as a U.S. born citizen and staying put.

According to the Constitution that those Christian men wrote over 200 years ago, I also have every right not to be subjected to your version of God and Christianity. You can’t force me to go to your church or worship your God. By the same Constitution, you don’t have to practice your religion in hiding, and you can practice your religion as you see fit. That’s because those men who wrote the Constitution, knew first hand how terrible religious tyranny was, and they wrote our Constitution with careful purpose, so that the government they were forming could never dictate the religious practices of anyone it governed. That’s why there’s no reference to God in the Constitution. It was so important to them that the very first line of the very first amendment reads: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; …”

As for this so-called “dilution of our national identity;” I’m not seeing what you’re seeing. What I do see is that tolerance and appreciation for other cultures and traditions makes us stronger and better as a nation . . .

And I can even tolerate someone coming here and not speaking English. If an immigrant chooses to become a citizen, the test is only given in English, so they have to learn it in order to take the test. As for the illegals, well, they may not become citizens, but their children being born here are. And those children are going to our schools and learning our language, so within as little as one generation, the language barrier disappears. Besides, have you, as an adult, ever tried to learn a second language, and speak it fluently with no accent? Then you know how difficult it can be to learn English as a second language.

Yes, you’re right. We have freedom of speech. You can say what you did in your letter last Wednesday. I can write what I have here, and we’re both Americans, and we’re both proud of our country. I can tolerate sharing this country with you. I hope you can tolerate sharing it with me.

Karen Gray

Oak Harbor