To the Editor:

I love that you top your "North Country Opinion" section with "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Perhaps some readers blow right past that without realizing it's the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. I fell in love with the Constitution and the Bill of Rights back in 1987 when I was invited to serve on the Ogdensburg committee for the Bicentennial of the Constitution. 

In the ensuing thirty-seven years, I've marveled at the attempts by some to re-interpret, diminish, and ignore those basic documents of our Federal Government. I firmly believe the Founding Fathers knew what they were doing and worked assiduously to craft what is the best formula for governing a republic like these United States. 

Or maybe "divided states" is a better descriptor these days. There is so much acrimony as our nation's citizens line up on either side of the issues of today. Debate rages over whether God is real, when life is viable, how many genders there are, whether to close the borders, to mask or not to mask, the efficacy and risks of vaccines, who is more fit to lead our nation, and on and on.

At the risk of dating myself, I believe my experiences on Earth since I "arrived" the Autumn that the Brooklyn Dodgers last beat the Yankees, have given me some of the answers, so I'll share just a bit of what I've learned: There is a God, and I'm not Him. And we're all sinners in need of a Savior.

Easter comes early this year, arriving on Sunday, March 31. This greatest of all Christian religious holy-days celebrates Jesus' emergence from the empty tomb he was laid in after He was crucified, killed on a cross, as a sacrifice for all of the sins of the world. Perhaps, if we focus on the life, death, and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and the way He showed us to go, we will see the truth that will set us all free from the things that divide us as a common people. Happy Easter. Christ is risen. He is risen, indeed.

David H. Ellis
Hammond