For decades, government money has been funding both higher and lower education. Every once in a while, a story comes out about some teacher stopping a child from making an expression of religious faith in a context where the child had every right to do so.

In higher education, Marxist and other humanist-socialist college professors single out Christian and conservative students for ridicule and harassment. Within the last year, Colorado professor Ward Churchill has caused a lot of controversy by comparing the Sept. 11 murdered victims at the World Trade Center to “little Eichmanns.” Liberals defend this as academic freedom.

Recently, at the Air Force Academy in Colorado, reports of aggressive evangelism by some students and faculty has gotten these same liberals up in arms. To hear their version of it, you would think that the dark ages were descending on America, and a theocracy led by President Bush, Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell was about to be established.

Liberals need a dose of reality.

The left-wing college professors cause more trouble than any small group of evangelicals in a military academy. But even at that, professors have been eclipsed in influencing society by left-wing Hollywood celebrities who blurt out idiocies and think they are imparting eternal wisdom.

Almon F. Jordan III, Auburn