Mash Notes, Hate Mail & Other Correspondence

To the Editor: To paraphrase the golden rule, treat others as you’d like to be treated. When I was a child, my mother explained that freedom did not mean you could yell “Fire!” in a crowded theater. I took that to mean that I couldn’t do what I wanted, when I wanted if that put others in danger. Rather, I had a responsibility to others to take their well-being into consideration. This was just common sense. Tell the truth. Don’t unnecessarily endanger others. It is not freedom to possibly harm others by ignoring public health warnings or by treating others as you would not want …

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by Winslow Myers Recently the Equity Leadership Steering Committee associated with an almost entirely white school district in Maine came out with a strong letter asking citizens to acknowledge not just the anodyne “white privilege,” but the actual “white supremacy” pervasive in our nation. Not unexpectedly, they received some pushback. Fortunately the Superintendent of Schools had the courage to back them up. Selective listeners heard “you’re accusing me of Ku-Klux-Klan-level racism.” But “white privilege,” compared to “white supremacy,” has the ring of a garden party to which I somehow deserved an invitation. “White supremacy,” enforced by the police and structures too long set in cultural …

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To the Editor: The video of police abusing/killing George Floyd is heart-wrenching. The police perpetrators are being prosecuted and should spend the rest of their lives behind bars. CNN spokesmen say “systemic racism” caused Floyd’s death. That charge is simply an attempt to shift the blame away from the people truly responsible for Floyd’s death: the police perpetrators, their police chief, and the Minneapolis Mayor. The policies, attitudes, decisions of, and training provided by the Minneapolis Police Department, controlled by its Democrat Mayor, enabled this killing. Why was an officer with 18 previous charges of abuse still employed? Does the Minneapolis Police Department condone abuse …

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To the Editor: If Israel annexes more Palestinian land, anticipate a violent uprising. Already, the head of the Israeli Occupation Forces has sent additional troops into the West Bank. Moreover, If Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu takes more Palestinian land, any hope for two states vanishes. Palestinians desire freedom of movement, access to clean water, and an end to Israeli “settler” violence against them and their children. Palestinian farmers seek an end to the destruction of their animals and olive trees by settlers and the military. Palestinians want an end to an apartheid system which forces them to use separate sidewalks and roads, and to have …

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To the Editor: I grew up in the church. We lived two doors away, and my dad was a deacon. Sunday mornings, I sat between my parents in the pews. I sang in the choir and attended Scouting at the church. Among my keepsakes are pins denoting eight years of perfect attendance at Sunday School. I was President of the Youth Fellowship before I signed up for the Air Force, during Vietnam. In 42 years of military service we moved 17 times. Our final assignment was in Montgomery, Alabama, where we attended several churches—white, black, Jewish—and participated in the civic group One Montgomery, whose members …

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To the Editor: Living under the Trump Administration feels like being a passenger in a speeding car with a texting driver. And it gets worse. The President’s frequent threats to suppress vote-by-mail ballots are the equivalent of engaging the child door locks, trying to trap us in his reckless journey. He’s putting lives at risk because of his feckless leadership in a crisis. The President’s allies might suggest that Joe Biden is just an old man, driving below the speed limit. Given a choice, I’d rather be in Biden’s car. He would be more aware of what is going on around his vehicle. Unlike the …

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