What is Norman Mehl talking about in his recent letter to the Sun (“History and another point of view,” Dec. 11)?
First, he rants that teaching is a “repetitive” profession. Does he mean all teaching, or just the teaching that goes on at Berkeley? Teaching, like all professions, has its repetition, but mostly, if done right, is quite creative and analytical.
Then, he raves that we are somehow under attack by “radical Muslims.” If that’s true, then we are also under attack by domestic terrorists (i.e. the federal building in Oklahoma), drunk drivers, and our own president (more than 4,000 dead and counting in an unprovoked, unjustified war).
He rants more about Kennedy and the war in Vietnam. I’m not sure what he’s referring to, but U.S. deaths in that war topped 58,000. Under Kennedy, fewer than 500 Americans were killed. And how is that Obama’s future? If he lives up to his word, Obama will have most U.S. troops out of Iraq by 2011.
Finally, he raves some more about Martin Luther King Jr. and again bungles his historical references. He says King lived in the days that African-Americans burned down their communities because a felon resisted arrest. Is he referring to Rodney King? Because the King trial happened almost 25 years after MLK was assassinated. He does get one thing right. Our prisons are overcrowded with African-Americans, mainly because of a de facto segregation and racism that has maligned this country since the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth.
I think Mehl should enroll in an American history class at Allan Hancock College, because his accounts of the past are simply wrong.
Michael Smith
Santa Maria
This article appears in Dec 18-25, 2008.