In "The Protection of Prayer" (Jan. 10), Matt Minchew refers to the suggestion by President Bush that we use prayer as a wartime tactic.
I am a health care counselor at the Freedom House Recovery Center detoxification unit and know something about addiction and recovery.
I believe the reason our political leaders keep getting into these dustups is the same reason why alcoholics and addicts get into trouble -- the disease of addiction -- in this case, addiction to power. Step 11 of the 12-step program of Alcoholics Anonymous says, "Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out." What is God's will for us? It is not to vanquish our enemies but to follow the Golden Rule so that we avoid making enemies in the first place! That is, we need to abandon our habit of propping up or destabilizing regimes and other Machiavellian shenanigans and "live and let live."
David Polewka
Chapel Hill
