If Philip Morris Ads Are Any Indication, Even the Bill of Rights Is Up for Sale in U.S.

Thanks for your article on the Philip Morris campaign to use our Bill of Rights as a marketing tool for their cigarettes (“ ‘Freedom’ Campaign Under Siege,” May 8). Many of us have written furious protests to our elected officials and to the National Archives (which accepted Philip Morris money for a Bill of Rights display) against this cynical exploitation of our heritage.

But it seems to do no good. The smarmy form letter I received from National Archives Director Don Wilson would literally make you retch. In reply, I wrote: “Your handout simply waltzes around the basic proposition that you allowed drug pushers to associate their deadly product with our sacred Bill of Rights. . . . Would you have allowed the Medellin Cartel to advertise cocaine?”

One also should note the mind-boggling cynicism of recruiting black celebrities to associate their names with a drug that rots the health and saps the wealth of their own already exploited people.

Truly, everything in America is for sale. As Hamlet’s royal father said: “Oh, what a falling-off was there.”

SARA MERIC, Santa Monica