To the Editor,
What would have happened in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings if Gandalf hadn’t broken the spell Wormtongue placed on the cowboy King Théoden, and Saruman had taken over Rohan? That script seems to be in production. Saruman may not be a white wizard, but all the power in our society—the courts, legislatures, executive, governmental bureaucracy, schools, and mass media—seems to have fallen to those favoring a national socialism. Schools and media churn out jaded, unisex orcs and uruk-hai without meaningful concepts of family or civilizing culture, who speak of lebensraum and protecting mother nature, but who thoughtlessly leave destruction in their wake. (Lebensraum (living space) was the Nazi environmentalist war cry for reducing the human population to increase the quality of life for themselves)  
How do we invest for the future when the party picks the winners and losers, now in the economy and science as well as the culture wars, based on increasing their power rather than any transcendent principles of liberty and justice? Is there still a Helms Deep to resort to (now that Jesse is gone)? Probably not, if we are limited to the realm of men. The only hope comes with a Sonrise.

Tim Beard
Toppenish