'Quite a leap' to condemn Harry Potter fantasy

Editor:

In response to the Nov. 14 guest column denouncing the Harry Potter books, I must write to express my complete disagreement with the comments of Rev. Louis Sheldon. I have read all of the Harry Potter books and wonder if Sheldon or anyone else who is so quick to condemn them has bothered to read more than a few lines.

These books are wonderful, imaginative stories. There is nothing real about people being born either wizard or non-wizard, and children going off to boarding school on an express train thats invisible to regular people, with their pet owls in tow. If these stories are evil, then is Cinderella also, since the Fairy Godmother waves a wand? Are reruns of Bewitched unraveling our moral fiber?

The central characters in the Potter books have integrity, courage and loyalty. These books are stories of good versus evil, where good triumphs and the evil characters are shown to be cowardly and corrupt. How on Earth does this have anything to do with goddess worship and the creation of a new eco-homoerotic moral ethic that seeks to rule the world? Quite a leap, I say.

I notice that Rev. Sheldon works in Washington, D.C. Maybe in the capital people rely on shrillness and sensationalism to draw attention to their ideas (and sell books and videos), but I hope that the sensible people here in the CSRA will trust their own judgment about what their children should or shouldnt read.

Liz Hane

Augusta