To the Editor:

Several recent events have triggered our Federal government to issue warnings to various states that if they enforce recently passed state legislation that they are in danger of losing millions of dollars in federal funds.

You may say that this is the Federal government’s prerogative and it may well be, though the words blackmail and coercion also come to mind.

States are composed of different people with different cultures and beliefs. While the states are a collective in a union no one should expect every state to be the same. If the people of one state choose to do “x,” and in another state they choose to do “y,” so be it as it represents local self-determination. It is unrealistic to expect 320 million people to all think and act in the same way.

It is normal that they do not.

That is why such a mass is broken down to sizable units (states) and the people of that area determine how they govern their own area. If the person in one state disagrees with his or her states laws they can work to change that law or move to another state that best fits their lifestyle. If the Federal government practices blackmail to attempt to coerce a people to bend to their will it does not trumpet the words “liberty,” or “the will of the people.”

Jonathan Varnell
Franklin