Attack on right wing smacks of effort to engender hatred

My View

The Rev. J. Charles Merrill has heaved a brick into the pig pen (“Political right wing has seduced, silenced part of church,” July 22). Let me be the pig that squeals.
Let’s concentrate on the four bullet points from his blistering diatribe:
> The rising tide of poverty in Texas for thousands of women and children.
I don’t purport to have all the answers, but I do have some observations. 
First, the United States is a beacon that attracts a constantly replenished supply of “tired and poor” from around the world—many looking for our entry-level jobs and most of whose children graduate from poverty.
Second, some folks are “poor” because they made some poor choices. And yes, there are consequences. 
Third, there is no shortage of good-paying jobs in Texas for folks willing to do what it takes to land such a job. I talk to “right-wing” entrepreneurs daily who are seeking to hire trained or trainable employees. 
Fourth, as a nation, we have learned that 40 years of “Great Society” programs, which transferred $25 trillion to the poor, didn’t reduce poverty.  And while no doubt those programs did help some, they also created a multigenerational group of perpetually poor.
I conclude that the “rising tide of poverty in Texas” is fed by something other than Mr. Merrill’s “right-wing…brothers and sisters.”
> Slowly disappearing access to health care.
Health care is indeed a problem—greatly compounded by our current concept of insurance and by government programs designed to addict Americans to “freebies” in exchange for their votes.
Perhaps one reason you didn’t hear a “peep” from your right-wing friends is that they are too involved in establishing low-cost or free medical missions. We have learned with absolute certainty that “socialized” medicine, wherever tried, results in health care inferior to what we have.
> The inexorable, hideous redistribution of wealth to the already wealthy.
This point of view presupposes the validity of the “zero sum gain” theory of money—that there is a finite amount of wealth, and that if one gets more, then it is at the expense of someone who gets less.
The root of all evil is perceived relative deprivation. One perceives that someone else is getting and depriving you of your “fair share” of whatever the subject is.
Vladimir Lenin used this idea as a tool to create and perpetuate class hatred.  It is currently used extensively by the political left for the same purpose.
Mr. Merrill’s comment regarding distribution of wealth indicates (a) he doesn’t understand how wealth is created and (b) he has bought into this political theory used to create class hatred.
> The most vicious prison system in the nation, finely tuned against people of color and with the highest death penalty population in the nation.
Prisons have a high density of evil people. By definition, those people are “vicious.” The reason they are in prison is to separate them from the general populace. Statistically, it seems the correlation of ethnicity of those who commit crimes to those who reside in prison is fairly high.
Allowing for a difference of opinion, had Mr. Merrill taken his misgivings about Texas prisons to the political arena or the judicial arena, I would respect his actions. However, as stated in his July 22 article, his position smacks of another attempt to engender class hatred.
I note Mr. Merrill’s disdain for the death penalty for criminals. I cannot help but wonder what his position is on abortion.