Branco’s cartoon obscene
Editorial cartoons from right-wing propaganda mills such as A.F. Branco’s Legal Insurrection demand context, perhaps most especially for the manufactured and baseless white grievance and white victimization claims that they falsely purport to evidence and prove.
Branco’s cartoon showing a little blond boy with the iron collar and shackles of “Critical Race Theory” around his neck and body is a shameful obscenity, equating a Trump-provoked pity party among whites with the historical fact of several centuries of genuinely brutal and broadly fatal African slavery in the United States, Caribbean and elsewhere. The cartoon suggests college professors are to blame, offering bogus evidence in support of claims that white college students are being indoctrinated, shamed and abused by the mere mention of race as a durable problem in our society.
Clue: The U.S. Senate just voted 94-1 to better protect Asian-Americans from a surge in violent hate crimes, a scapegoating campaign set in motion by former President Donald Trump to distract from his failed COVID-19 response.
So what is this new bug-bear of critical race theory, anyway? First, it is a redundant construct since “critical” and “theory” both signify a willingness to ask potentially uncomfortable questions, including about our own society.
That leaves the “race” part, which seems to break down thusly:
l Does racism still exist in the U.S.?
l Do all Americans enjoy civil rights equally, and equal protection under the law?
l What can we do about it?
l Why should these questions remain taboo and verboten?
Chris Norden
Moscow
Butt out, legislators
How ignorant some legislators are, trying to censor social justice teaching from higher education. They don’t even know what social justice means because the whole concept has been skewed by the extreme right.
Definition: Social justice is understanding and working for equity.
In my field, special education, social justice means working for equity for students with disabilities. The Bible is based on social justice. Christians and other religious groups advocate for social justice (even if they don’t use those exact words). Legislators: Stop micro-managing universities and colleges, especially when you don’t know what you’re talking about. Keep government from dictating curriculum.
Darcy Miller
Pullman
Gift made her day
On the afternoon of April 21, I was leaving my volunteer job at St. Vincent DePaul in Clarkston. When I got into my car, a lady in her car next to mine came over to mine. I did not know her. When I rolled down my window, she asked if I was from St. Vincent De Paul.
I said, yes, I was a volunteer.
She has a red rose in her hand. She said it was her birthday and someone had given her a dozen red roses. She was giving them to people she thought deserved them and she handed me a rose.
I do not know who this lady was but it was a very nice gift. Since I was just leaving my volunteer job, where it is a great place to volunteer and the people who come in are also great, I was very surprised.
Whoever you are, thank you very much. You made my day. Hopefully, someone will make your day. Evidently they did as you had a dozen red roses to give to people.
Mine is in a vase, resting on my fireplace mantel.
Maybe if more people were so generous, it would be a better world. ...
Barbara Robbins
Lewiston
Dams and fish co-exist
I have been to several meetings with Citizens for the Preservation of Fish and Dams. What I have learned from this group is that fish and dams can co-exist without the conflicting argument that dams are reducing the numbers and causing some fish to go extinct.
Fish counts can easily be documented by fact Googling fish counts at Bonneville Dam from 1938 and also from the Fish Passage Center at fpc.org.
If you do this, you will see steelhead counts over Bonneville Dam from 1938 to 1947 total 1,274,530.
And from 2000 to 2009, it came to 4,014,400 clipped and 1,113,730 wild.
For spring chinook each January through May from 1938 to 1947, it was 618,952.
And from 2000 to 2009, the total was 1,634,639.
I learned these facts from one of the best and most prominent senior members of the group. This gentleman has more knowledge about fishing and fish recovery than any so-called scientist who advocates for dam removal. His knowledge on fish recovery, fish barging and facts are far more practical and obviously better thought-out than any of Congressman Mike Simpson’s or any other advocates’ thinking dam removal is a solution to fish recovery.
There are so many factors affecting fish recovery that the single-minded approach to dam removal as a solution is ludicrous. Check the facts and you will see the dams have little to do with fish numbers in the Columbia, Snake, Clearwater and Salmon river systems.
Marvin J. Entel
Clarkston
