Letters to the Editor: July 29

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Good news, bad news or both
David Suissa’s remarks about good news versus bad news (“What the Highland Park massacre hides from us,” July 15) is the perfect complement to Jeffrey M. Landaw’s comments the week before on critical race theory and the enslavement of Black people in the U.S. (“America’s original sin,” July 8). I would like to believe, and hope, that most opponents of CRT share my view that the problem is not ignoring our nation’s sins, but knowing how, when, where and to whom to discuss them. I would be the first to acknowledge that there are many “sins” that we can be ashamed of — among the worst, our decimation of American Indian populations, our overthrow of the legitimate and friendly Hawaiian government in 1893 and the attempt to destroy the language and culture of both Indians and Hawaiian natives. But do we really want to teach young children to hate America and, worse, to hate themselves (for being white)?

For there is, after all, plenty of good news about America. It was America that also put an end to slavery back in 1865 after a horrific Civil War that threatened to destroy us. We saved Europe at a tremendous cost in lives in two world wars and South Korea in the Korean War. We are attempting to save Ukraine from the barbarous Putin war, which many would say we are partially responsible for through the stupid policies of the Biden administration that only encouraged the Russian despot — our seeming weakness in the shameful way we withdrew from Afghanistan, the shutdown of the Keystone XL pipeline that suggested Europe could never do without Russian fuel imports and more. If this current war teaches us anything, it is that democracies are always threatened, and if we don’t teach our children the good as well as the bad, promote unity instead of division, and, above all, stress love of country, we risk losing everything.

Jeff Knisbacher

Lakewood Ranch, Fla.

Country unrecognizable
What is going on in our country? Manager of a restaurant in Wheaton was stabbed (“Stabbing victim stable as Max’s Kosher Cafe prepares to close,” July 22). Candidate running for governor in New York was accosted. Comedian could have been hurt by a man rushing the stage. Someone threatened a Supreme Court judge outside his house. Not to mention the mass shootings, some of which we never hear about because there are so many. I do not recognize my country anymore. I am so saddened and heartbroken.

Lana Fink

Reisterstown

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