I had to let a week go by before I responded to a letter written by my progressive friend, Mike Proto. This so I could give a thoughtful and charitable response.

I stand by my contention that racism is nothing compared to the other woes in society. My progressive friend called drug abuse and alcohol abuse individualized problems, but racism he calls systemic. Such a statement trivializes the death and destruction alcohol and drugs cause.

But how can someone even say that one problem is individualized and another systemic? All problems begin individualized until they become systemic.

Racism, however, is not systemic in spite of the fact that both blacks and whites are guilty of it. Last time I looked, all laws apply equally to all Americans.

My comment on sexual immorality was ridiculed by my progressive friend. I wonder if he ever heard of rape and what it does to women? Or pedophilia and child pornography and the lives they destroy? I wonder if he ever heard of sex trafficking? Then there’s addiction to pornography and adultery, both of which destroy marriages and families.

What about the emotional pain of children involved in a divorce? And teenage pregnancy? Children being raised by children? Unwanted pregnancies resulting in abortion or child abuse. What about single-parent homes where the mother is struggling to raise children from multiple fathers who have left. These are the fruits of sexual immorality. They are diabolical, they are what’s truly systemic, and they are undermining our society in a major way. But my progressive friend just lampoons it.

He ended his letter with a plea to find common ground. I couldn’t agree more. But how serious can he be when in his letter he referred to conservatives as “rabid” and liberals like himself as “proud”?

John Cintolo
Bristol