I’m confused by the defensive tone of Fred Dyson’s recent letter (July 20). He and I and a whole lot of people were — and are — being raised with those good values he listed, and I’m proud of having lived those values as best I could. I’m proud of my kids for living those values, too.
Even so, I’m not proud of the Ku Klux Klan and the values they and their like still represent. I’m sorry slavery ever existed in my country. I wish the noble words of our Declaration of Independence in 1776 — “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal …” — had been carried out in our Constitution, but slaves were counted as “three-fifths of a person” until slavery was outlawed in 1865.
Your taxes are still going for those sleek warplanes that protect us and blast over our heads so often, for roads and schools and police and fire departments. A small part of your taxes and mine go to providing care for folks unable to care for themselves. No government agency is out to take your goods.
Here’s what I’d like to tell Fred: You and I had a head start in this great country of ours just because our skin was a certain hue. We’ve both worked hard, and we’ve both been rewarded for that, and you’ve been generous with your good fortune and your time. So it shouldn’t take a whole lot of courage or understanding of history to admit we had that head start.
Now, what we do about it is another whole discussion, a whole new chapter to be played out in this great country’s history.
— John Blaine
Anchorage
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