To the editor:

How many of us have experienced the disappointment when the baseball or soccer game came to an end, because the owner of the ball had to leave? How many have felt resentment when the owner of the ball left because he was not getting his way?

That is how I feel about Congressman Randy Forbes. He has taken the ball and gone home in the game to fix the national budget.
To be fair, Forbes did vote against the Budget Control Act of 2011. My angst comes from the fact that once a bill was passed by a majority of both houses of Congress and signed into law, my representative did not work to avoid a new budget crisis.

Congressman Forbes refused to compromise with others who had the responsibility to represent their constituents, too. Since he could not have things his own way, he took the ball home. Now, instead of working to get the nation’s fiscal house in order, he is working to circumvent the sequestration to which both parties of Congress agreed.
Congressman Forbes has a history of ignoring the laws of the United States of America. His favorite law to ignore is the First Amendment, the one that states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

While the country edges closer to a financial cliff, our representative is busy working to establish his religious beliefs into the laws of the land. While I believe in the motto “In God We Trust,” I believe it establishes the Christian God at the head of a national religion. How many Americans would be willing to replace the term “God” with “Allah,” “Brahman” or “Shangdi”? Why not?

My objection to Forbes’ actions is not based merely on a strict interpretation of the First Amendment but on the idea that the United States government has no business telling me whom I should trust. I trust in God, not the government.
We are ill served by a congressman who disregards the laws of the land. We are ill served by a congressman who refuses to build a consensus with the representatives of all Americans to solve our country’s problems.

In my opinion it would be the best thing for everyone if Congressman Forbes would leave and take his ball home forever.

Chris Dove

Suffolk