A desire for courageous politicians
As a young high school history teacher in the 1960s and 1970s, I watched cynicism grow among my students toward our government, largely because of the lies told about the Vietnam War and former President Richard Nixon’s Watergate involvement. It was with relief when Gerald Ford became president and said, “My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over . ...
“As we bind up the internal wounds of Watergate ... let us restore the golden rule to our political process, and let brotherly love purge our hearts of suspicion and of hate.” How long must we wait for our politicians to have the courage to end the President Trump induced nightmare and appeal to our “better angels”? Ford went on to say, now 43 years ago, that “truth is the glue that holds government together.”
Rodney Liner, San Carlos
An affront to safety
The emergence of a multicultural, equitable society is threatening to some as it challenges their understanding of identity and place. What occurred in Charlottesville, Va., was a rebellion to the growth of a civil society.
To build a better history, we must acknowledge our past. Emblems of slavery must be confronted to build upon the new common ground of a strong, diverse society. This is how we take back America, by taking it forward. The call for a Patriot Prayer Rally on Crissy Field is a dangerous affront to community safety. Crissy Field lies on sacred burial grounds of our First People and is surrounded by landmarks, such as Fort Mason and the San Francisco National Cemetery, which symbolize liberty and freedom.
Serving Bay Area’s diverse community, Presidio YMCA is home to thousands of programs. This proposed rally poses a threat to our programs and we will monitor the situation to ensure safety among our participants. Our call is to embrace the variations by which people are born into, and all of the ways in which we can create a positive, nurturing space for self-expression and human potential.
Chuck Collins, San Francisco
Thoughtful solution
Regarding “All roads lead to conformity when Google touts diversity” (Insight, Aug. 13): What fun conservative columnist Jonah Goldberg must have employing unaccountable terms like bleating and hysterics to describe people who object to perceived and experienced gender bias. Meanwhile, seriously thoughtful people are engaged where Goldberg isn’t looking.
While working at Curi Odyssey, the San Mateo children’s science center, I spent a memorable afternoon a few years ago with an award-winning high school science teacher who had discovered something very interesting about girls and engineering.
As we walked through a new suite of labs in her high school, she described the program she had inherited, one with at least 80 percent boys — the going percentage in science and tech, according to Goldberg — and the simple change she introduced that very quickly brought the program to gender parity. It was just this: When she changed the goals of the exercises from abstract power to helping people in need, the girls arrived. With solutions. No bleating. Oh, by the way, the teacher was African American. Marilyn Bancel, San Francisco
Trump’s straw man
Regarding “Trump reverses, blaming ‘both sides’ for deadly clash” (Aug.16): President Trump creates a straw man proposition when he suggests that taking down the statue of Robert E. Lee could lead to taking down tributes to former Presidents George Washington or Thomas Jefferson. It takes little thought to see the difference between a person who owned slaves during a time when it was legally permissible and one who militarily opposed the United States of America to perpetuate that abhorrent practice many years later.
It may well be indefensible that Washington owned slaves despite eventually speaking of his desire to end slavery and freeing his slaves only in his will (unable to do so by law at the time). Yet, it is obvious that he led our country honorably both as a general and as president, unlike Confederate military men who sought to overthrow our country. It also seems obvious that Washington is more deserving of honor than a president who never served in the U.S. military and puts Nazis on equal footing with liberals.
Jacquelyn Gentry, Foster City
Exposure to reality
I grew up watching Westerns and other tales that influenced me to root for the “honorable” white man battling “toxic” others. After years and years of exposure to reality (especially this past year), I realize that in many cases the associated adjectives are the other way around.
Bob Fifield, Aptos