PROTECTING THE FREE THINKERS

Thank you for Sharon Whitley’s piece on BLAM! (“Courting Justice,� Palm Latitudes, July 10). It was clearly written and accurate and immensely welcome to those of us who respect and revere the Constitution of the United Satates, and who are doing everything we can to preserve the personal freedoms it guarantees.

My childhood and early adulthood were spent as an American living abroad in Singapore and Kingston, Jamaica. While I was living in Jamaica, martial law was declared and all guns and ammunition were confiscated by the government. A concentration camp was erected in Kingston, complete with barbed wire and armed guards. Anyone caught with even a single bullet was immediately incarcerated, with no trial, for an indeterminate amount of time. Thus I learned very early that a written Constitution is the only defense against the government’s seizing power overnight.

TINA RIPLEY

Dana Point