Letters to the editor May 22
Racial divisions
As always, the letters of David Myerowitz are filled with right-wing conspiracy theories that form the false foundations for his conclusions. He begins his March 28, 2023, contribution to the Inter Lake by repeating the ridiculous assertion that CRT is taught in elementary schools. Of course, since that piece of disinformation is being propagandized by “Fox and Friends,” it will be believed by those who still wrongly think it’s an actual news source.
Conspiracy theories aside, Myerowitz’ next claim is absolutely mind-blowing. Although he is 76 years old, he says he has, “. . . never seen a greater racial divide than we currently have.”
Wow! A 76-year-old who doesn’t recall the white violence and racial hatred displayed when desegregation was forced upon the South? Possibly, Myerowitz grew up in a place where TV channels carefully censored real news events the way Fox “News” does today. Or is it because “racial division” really isn’t racial division as long as the marginalized race is kept in its place, so to speak?
The playground violence to which Myerowitz refered is absolutely deplorable. Such events should never happen in America. When its investigation is completed, it needs to be fully reported. However, why would anyone, child or adult, refuse to simply agree, “Of course Black lives matter.” Saying, “Black lives matter,” does not rationally imply that White lives don’t matter, although that is what those seeking to divide our country further would have us believe.
Yes, the racial divide in our country remains deep. White supremacy begets racial hatred, and hate begets more hate. And, the fascistic lies and hatred we have heard from Trump daily over the last seven years has normalized the very worst inclinations in millions of Americans. Only when the downward spiral that Trumpism created is somehow reversed will we become the better America we all long for.
— Al Weed, Kalispell
A Christian nation
The constant misconception of the religious foundation of this nation can be clarified if one will just look up the U.S. Supreme Court decision, “Holy Trinity Church v. United States, February 29, 1892.” It was determined then that this was a Christian nation.
A draft of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was made by George Mason in 1788, based on his bill of rights for the Virginia Convention of 1776. It was slightly modified before being ratified as Amendment 1 in 1791.
However, Joseph Storey, United States Justice (1836) clarified the First Amendment’s meaning as follows. “The real object of the First Amendment was not to countinance, much less advance Mohomadism, Islam, or Judaism or infidelity by prostrating Christianity, but to exclude all rivalry among Christian sects and to prevent any national or eclestical establishment, which would give an heirachy the exclusive patronage of the national government.”
- Separation of church and state is not in the Constitution nor is it in the First Amendment. This was from a letter by Thomas Jeffersson to the Danbury Baptists in 1801. He insured them no specific denomination of Christianity would have preference over them.
— Warren Williamson, Kalispell