We can all learn listening to each other

26 Smoky Mountain News

Opinion We can all learn by listening to each other

Letter to the Editor:

I enjoyed reading Dr. Norman Hoffman’s opinion piece in the Friday, November 12, issue. I appreciate his concerns about the teaching of history in our public schools, his experiences as a public school student, and his reference to Critical Race Theory (CRT). I am prompted to comment on three things he wrote about.

First, CRT. CRT may be very sophisticated scholarship not taught at the high school level, but it is taught in universities that train teachers, and those teachers teach our kids. Furthermore, CRT affects the rest of us, as it has influenced the writings of Ibram X. Kendi and Robin DeAngelo, among others. Dr. Hoffman may disagree with me, but I believe there is good evidence that in many public schools across America, as a result of thinkers like Kendi and DeAngelo, our children are being taught that whiteness is bad, that it always equals unearned privilege, that white children should be ashamed of their whiteness and that they should make up for the crimes of their ancestors. The end result of such indoctrination of our children is to divide us into tribes, each with grievances towards the other tribe; i.e., tribalism. Read about what happened in Bosnia or Rwanda in the 1990s to see where tribalism leads.

Second, the Tulsa Race Massacre. Absolutely shameful, despicable. But I am surprised, Dr. Hoffman, that a man with a doctorate just learned about it in the last year or so. You must not be from Oklahoma. Had you been an Oklahoman, you would be pleased to know that your state formed a commission in 1996 (25 years ago) to study the massacre, and its 2001 report led to reparations for survivors, economic investment in the Black neighborhood that was destroyed, and creation of a park in memory of the victims. Furthermore, Oklahoma has required the teaching of the massacre in its public schools since 2002 (19 years ago).

Third, and finally, I want to tell of my own public school history-learning experience that differs from Dr. Hoffman’s. I do not know how old Dr. Hoffman is, or where he grew up, but I’m 64 years old, and I grew up in Dalton, Georgia. In middle school, I went on a field trip to New Echota, Georgia, the capital of the Cherokee Nation prior to the Removal by the man on the $20 bill. This would have been in the late 1960s or early 1970s. I’ll never forget that day in New Echota: the courtroom, the legislature building, and the shop where the Cherokee Phoenix, was printed. I remember my teachers gave me a very sobering account of what happened in 1838. A good, noble, civilized people had their lands stolen by greedy white people — that is what I was taught. I don’t recall any sugar-coating — and this at a public school in the heart of Dixie only a few years after integration.

Yes, history is complicated. And someone is going to tell it and may tell it accurately, or inaccurately, or to deceive, or for filthy lucre, or self-aggrandizement, or foolishly, or wisely. May we try to listen to one another, and learn from one another, realizing that we are flawed human beings. Steven Snowden Crider Waynesville

Cawthorn in line for Pinocchio award

LETTERS

To the Editor:

I recently received an email from Rep. Madison Cawthorn, R-Hendersonville. If only there was a Pinocchio award, so I could see our congressman’s nose growing longer and longer.

His exact words as he called for the resignation of Dr. Anthony Fauci: “I took to the House floor a couple of weeks ago to reveal the heinous mutilating techniques that Dr. Fauci has been using on puppies in Africa using your tax dollars.”

Yes, there is research going on worldwide in the battle against Filiariasis. This horrible disease affects over 120 million people worldwide. Mr. Cawthorn didn’t mention that.

So, Dr. Fauci hopped on a plane and flew to Africa with his scalpels and mutilated little puppies.

Actually, the research funded by Dr. Fauci’s federal agency is being done at the University of Georgia under very strict humanitarian rules. His agency is not funding studies in Tunisia with your tax dollars.

Here’s a thorough analysis of Cawthorn’s ridiculous and dishonest claims: www.snopes.com/fact-check/fauci-vaccineexperiment-beagles.

This is one of the top ridiculous and heinous lies (to use Cawthorn’s term) I’ve heard from any member of the U.S. Congress lately. Number one was a Cawthorn colleague from Texas who declared women who are raped can’t get pregnant (my emphasis) because their bodies shut down when they are raped.

Maybe we do need a Pinocchio award. Keep it up, Mr. Cawthorn. You are in second place but with a little more work …. Steve Wall Waynesville

Thankful for infrastructure bill

To the Editor:

At long last after years of inaction, there will be greatly needed improvements to the infrastructure of the United States. We can look forward to seeing road improvements, a strengthening of the electrical grid, wider access and more stable broadband, airport upgrades, and other enhancements. Significantly, good-paying jobs will open as Americans undertake the work required to realize these needed renovations. Residents will experience specific benefits in Cherokee, Haywood, Jackson, Macon, Swain, McDowell and several other counties in the North Carolina Mountain region. Although long overdue, it is something for which we can all be grateful since these improvements will benefit us all.

It is disheartening that the congressman elected to represent our region voted against wider access to high-speed internet; against upgrading the electrical grid; against programs to help the region reduce transportation fatalities and crashes (think Interstate 26 in Buncombe and Henderson counties and malfunction junction in Asheville); against funding for clean water and low-emission school buses; against modernizing our airport.

Congressman Madison Cawthon is a public servant who was elected to represent the region and residents across several counties here in North Carolina. Refusing to endorse infrastructure changes is equivalent to a refusal to represent the people and the communities of Western North Carolina. Nevertheless, other public servants recognized the need for and value of these initiatives, and we will finally see enhancements, repairs, and good-paying jobs.

In the spirit of the season, this community is blessed and thankful. Happy Thanksgiving. Teri Domagalski Waynesville

Let’s talk honestly about social programs

To the Editor:

Communism, socialism and Democrats are all the same, always bad, all the time. Democratic-leaning relatives, friends, and associates who you have known for years are now considered pedophiles or worse, socialist. The Republican propaganda machine is in warp drive. I lived through the “Red Scare of the 1950s and, like today, unfounded fears and pure lies are at the heart of this assault on the truth.

As a governing principal, pure communism and pure capitalism have never succeeded in a modern state. Only Cuba and Venezuela — two failed states — can be called Communist. Russia, China, and many other modern states are really just dictatorships. They are run for the benefit of one person, like Putin in Russia or one minority group, like the communist elite in China. Even these countries have a strong dose of capitalism to support the governing class, because without it no one has any incentive to produce or create wealth necessary to support the state.

Today, most modern governments, like the United States, that are not run by a dictator, are a combination of capitalism, the pursuit of individual wealth and socialism (the use of social programs). Capitalism is needed to provide the incentive to produce wealth and create an economy to support the state. Social programs are needed for the protection of children, elderly, minorities and those in need. These citizens would all be abandoned in pure capitalist society. Think Social Security, Medicare, public health programs and a hundred others we have come to depend on.

The last time the Republicans won the presidential popular vote was 2004. Since then, the Republican party has created this hateful “straw man” socialism to divert our attention from their failed policies. It is a common tactic when one party concludes it cannot succeed by arguing the merits of their position. Let’s have a rational discussion about the need for social programs and how to pay for them, in a capitalist state. Calling your opponent names and equating them with the devil is not what our founding fathers had in mind.