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To the Editor:  

Me, John Ashcroft, Hitler and other control freaks I have known: I confess! I am a control freak. I run my children's lives with an iron hand. Why? Because I can't stop myself! Elementary fact of life: Control freaks are control freaks because we are not in control. 

I myself am a control freak because when I was a child I had no control over anything. I was told what to say, what to think and what to do – 24/7. I was told that Jesus and God were spies for my parents and that they would report back even my thoughts to said parents. I was even told when I needed to go to the bathroom. Now, when I go into control freak mode, my children just shrug their shoulders and avoid me. 

However, when government leaders go into control freak mode, they shred the Constitution, push their religions down our throats, ruin the economy, try to take over the world and threaten us with an all-too-real Armageddon that involves concentration camps and nuclear destruction. You can't get much more out of control than that. Moral of the story: Let's stop letting control freaks run our world. Let's start learning to trust and to cooperate with our fellow man.  

Let's drop the control freak version of Jesus-as-Dominatrix and become more familiar with the real Jesus – Jesus, the Prince of Peace. And let's start voting for candidates who aren't constantly trying to toilet train us and run our lives. “Imagine a world where every child is wanted, nurtured, protected and loved: World Peace in one generation!” Plus we will have children who know how to think for themselves. 

Jane Stillwater, 

Berkeley