Regarding "When will we have to hide mangers?" (Oct. 19, Letters) from the writer who is "frightened at the prospect of having to hide her Christmas manger scene": Please tell me this is a joke.

"What would our country be like without rules?" she asks. We have rules -- they are called the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. They protect us from the oppression of religion in government. We were founded on the idea of freedom, not the Ten Commandments. That means freedom from the tyranny of religious zealots.

BRIAN HENSON

Modesto