The past is never over
Those who shriek and flail in denial of any hint of ongoing American white supremacy were particularly shrill regarding my July 8 Confederate flag letter to the editor:
1. Jim Lieb rightly points out I'd lumped together both Union and Confederate dead in my Civil War body count -- I erred inadvertently. I misread the numbers.
2. His other points, not so much. The Civil War began when the CSA fleet fired on Fort Sumter, a U.S. military installation. Rationalizing it by saying "they were going to attack us, so we attacked them first!" is nonsense. The Zionist entity used that flimsy excuse to attack Egypt in 1967 because the latter was conducting military maneuvers in Yemen. Never mind that Israeli Defense Forces were already in position before onset of those maneuvers, which were 1,374 miles away on the other side of Saudi Arabia, or, the IDF deliberately attacked the U.S.S. Liberty to eliminate witnesses to their mobilization.
3. As for saying America's 'peculiar institution' wasn't as bad as the Nazis, 2,000,000 Africans died in misery during the middle passage alone. Nazi death camp survivors were liberated from their captivity. For over two centuries millions of black Americans (albeit each only counting as 3/5th of a person) were for generations held captive from cradle to grave under conditions today's Americans couldn't survive, let alone imagine. And they emerged into a society for the most part as hostile and exploitative to them as the plantations they'd left. Allah truly says in His Quran: "Oppression is worse than killing."
Nor is Leib's "others did it too" argument tenable. Would he argue that because Al-Qaeda flew airplanes into buildings, murdering over 3,000 civilians, it would be somehow "less evil" for America to do the same? Oh wait, America has done the same -- only with drones. My bad.
Finally, Geoff Kennedy's "Beware PC police attacks" letter was satire aimed at those conflating display of their beloved -- but hateful -- "symbols" with "free expression." Grow a sense of humor, people.
-- Al Hajj Frederick Minshall
Anchorage
Follow Gen. Lees lead and retire Confederacy regalia
Here's some history I find important regarding today's Confederate flag. The original stars and bars was actually square. It was the flag representing Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. It was called the Beauregard Flag at the time. One of the last official acts Lee performed on behalf of the Confederacy was to furl that flag at Appomattox when he signed the articles of surrender. That was in 1865.
Upon Lee's death his family requested no flags or uniforms of the old Confederacy be displayed at his funeral. That is an important fact because I conclude Lee, if he were here to day, would not stand for the current display of the ostensible Confederate flag.
The current rectangular stars and bars flag was first prominently displayed in 1961, almost 100 years after the Beauregard flag was furled and put away by Lee. The new rectangular stars and bars was raised over the Alabama Capitol and other Southern states as a sign of protest to federal desegregation and integration efforts underway in the Congress in the early 1960s.
The current use of the flag continues not as a tradition, nor is it honoring the South, but it is used as a statement.
Tradition would be for the flag to be furled and retired and honored as Lee intended.
-- Dave Jensen
Anchorage
Walker, not GOP, is leader
Alaskans are cheering Gov. Bill Walker for his actions concerning the expansion of Medicare. Interestingly enough Peter Goldberg and the Alaska Republican Party's response was dead-on correct. "What Alaskans heard today was "damn the Legislature -- full steam ahead."
Having watched the circus known as the Alaska Legislature these last six or so months, we now see there are some true leaders left in public service. Alaskans are saying damn the Alaska Republican Party -- full steam ahead.
-- Brett Delana
Anchorage
Crosses too much to bear
I agree, flags with Confederate symbolism are unacceptable for display by government. To invoke such pain and memory is both unnecessary and insulting.
The same can be said about flags that include crosses. Under such symbols, hostility toward nonbelievers has for too long been perpetuated.
-- Frank Gold
Fairbanks
Flowers touts her bigotry
Thanks to Christine Flowers for her July 18 column ("In 'don't bully' society, etiquette rumps authenticity") confirming:
a) The "traditional" Catholic worldview remains incapable of fully accepting good people that happen to be gay; and
b) By ostracizing others (LGBT; abortion rights proponents, etc.), the ostracizer can miraculously claim they're being persecuted; and
c) By adhering to standards of morality that are so vulnerable to a "force-fed secular vision of tolerance" that merely viewing the outline of a pierced nipple (under a shirt, no less) could set you off like a rocket.
Christine and her ilk profess to "love one another" yet fixate on finding reasons for banishing people who don't share their small-minded bigotry. Thanks to Christine for reminding me why I left her insufferable cult.
-- Chris Wooley
Anchorage
Homeless have souls, lives remembered with love
I read with great empathy the story about the sad death of Destry Murphy. The grief of his father, Lenny Patterson, is heavy beyond imagining. I want to extend my sympathy and prayers to him.
The headline repeats Patterson's statement that his son was not "some homeless guy." To Patterson, this is a deep truth, because Murphy was his son. He knew his face, his name, his heart and his soul.
But please remember that all "homeless guys" also have faces, names, hearts and souls. They are all somebody's children. None of them are a statistic or a category. They are all human. They all matter.
We read many stories here about homelessness, and it is all too easy to become numb to them. Let's embrace this father's lament as a way to prevent that numbing, and as a reminder that every single "homeless person" is first and foremost a person -- and worthy of our love and remembrance.
-- Rev. Matthew Schultz
Anchorage
Take them all down
Removing only the Mississippi state flag? Sounds like discrimination to me. I agree with Kevin McClure (Letters, July 20), remove one, remove all.
-- Herbert Gray
Anchorage
Homeless go unnoticed
I had to write in regards to your story about the young man who was found. I noticed the light it was written under, the fact that some people, indiscriminately, fall from grace and seemingly can go unnoticed. My condolences go to his family, and hope in the future that same light will also make "some homeless man" be known.
Many die similarly, and little is shared, either by lack of interest or simply lack of information. Nobody wants to be "some homeless guy;" their story, good or bad, can help others.
-- Neil Beltz
Anchorage
Dubious Knik Arm project has imaginary benefits
Wonderful! Wonderful! Who can turn off the boggle machine?
On May 30, ADN published a picture of the Sourdough Lodge on Government Hill being demolished for the Knik Arm Bridge project.
A dubious project in which all its investors pulled out. This was supposed to be the directly funded project that would pay for itself. A project with imaginary benefits to transportation in Anchorage and the Valley. A project that has already cost millions and has no timeline.
A decade has passed on this project and we have seen large sums expended for public relations, right of domain and questionable facts and figures. Families have vacated their homes, tax revenue taken away and years of arbitration and this is only phase 1 of three.
We have been told by the authorities that so far the project is by the book and within the law.
Isn't this a fantastic example of bureaucracy out of control? Isn't this the way mega projects are done in Alaska?
-- Charles Scott
Anchorage
The views expressed here are the writers' own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a letter for consideration, email letters@alaskadispatch.com, or click here to submit via any web browser. Submitting a letter to the editor constitutes granting permission for it to be edited for clarity, accuracy and brevity. Send longer works of opinion to commentary@alaskadispatch.com.