Dear Editor: The letter of Rick O’Conell (“Parade Never Discriminated,” Nov. 14) from the affluent neighborhood of Little Neck, attacks the Catholic Paul Ryan, accusing him of being an admirer of Ayn Rand.

As far as I know, to admire some of the ideas of Ayn Rand is no sin. She suffered under Communism, and wrote about the potential damages of an elitist, powerful central government, in agreement with the Founding Fathers of this nation, that designed a Constitution with balancing powers of the three branches of government, to avoid such a central one.

In general terms, Republicans are the conservative party in this country, and there are numerous statistics showing that conservatives are much more generous with their own money and time, as volunteers, than liberals, who are very generous with other people’s money.

Jobs are more important than giveaways, and I believe that Republicans would prefer to give block grants to the states, and these ones determine at a local level how to help the real needy, instead of deciding in Washington (and academia) who needs what. To create dependence is a serious problem.

RAUL ALESSANDRI

Davidsonville, Md.