Dear Editor,
Thanks to G. Gregory Hughes for his Dec. 18 letter, “The dictates of conscience in Vermont.” Mr. Hughes identifies a fundamental flaw in our laws: they allow spending tax money on religious schools. He also suggests a sensible solution to the problem: eliminating state expenditures on all private or religious schools.
To paraphrase Thomas Jefferson, “It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are 20 gods or one God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg. However, it does pick my pocket to spend my tax money on religious schools. It would be equally vile to require other people to finance the Freedom from Religion Foundation, an organization I support.”
Let’s follow Mr. Hughes’ proposal and bring Vermont back to what our founders intended and expressed in the First Amendment: a state with a strict separation of church and state.
Kem Phillips, Cavendish
