Never forget the hard lessons learned from Vietnam
Ithank and commend you for the excellent, in-depth special Vietnam feature for Veterans Day (“‘In Country: Memories of service in Vietnam,’ ” special section, Nov 11). It was sad and moving, reminding me viscerally of what I personally was doing during much of that war — protesting and marching up and down the streets of San Francisco and Los Angeles.
I realize there might have been no place in the supplement for that phase of the war, but for us, our solidarity was real and focused, yet never critical of the troops per se. Until we forced Lyndon Johnson to step down, we had to deal with the real progenitor of the conflict. There are adult children in Santa Fe who suffered birth defects from their father’s minimal exposure to the defoliant Agent Orange; imagine how many more are in Vietnam. A war to be forgotten? No, not in the human costs, but as to the idiotic bestial motivation perpetuating it? We should also never forget that, so as to avoid the same ghastly mistakes in the future.
Stephen Fox New Millennium Fine Art Santa Fe
Trump’s teachings
These are the rules for children in the bad teacher’s classroom: Lie any time you’re in trouble or just to get what you want. You are the most important person. Nobody’s needs are more important than your own. Anyone who looks or sounds different is a bad person. It’s OK to steal school supplies or money or anything you want. Be a bully. Everybody should do what you want them to do. You don’t need friends or allies, just people who serve you. Ignore the Pledge of Allegiance and U.S. Constitution and all that legal stuff. Ignore legal papers if you get in trouble. Ignore the climate problem — call it a hoax. Say yes to oil companies and no to the trees and animals.
These are the “rules” being taught children today.
B.L. Hileman Santa Fe
Truth and civility, please
Marco Serna’s op-ed (“Hate speech has no place in New Mexico,” My View, Nov. 24) is an act of character assassination against Valerie Plame, his 3rd Congressional District primary opponent. He claims, with absolutely no evidence, that she has received contributions from Holocaust deniers. Similarly, he alleges Plame “has a long history of spreading anti-Semitic information.” In fact, Plame inadvertently retweeted one article deemed anti-Semitic for which she has profusely apologized. As a CIA operations officer, Valerie Plame served our nation honorably. She did so often at considerable personal risk. During a time when we have seen other brave, public servants vilely smeared, there should be no place in New Mexico for self-serving, unjustified personal attacks on a political opponent.
Mark L. Asquino Santa Fe