Dear editor,
We are supposed to learn from history. It is a shame so many important aspects of our history have been omitted because someone might get “upset” or “offended” by some aspect of history.
No matter how ugly or shameful an aspect of history might be, it is important that every aspect be taught so we can learn and understand. It wasn’t until I was in college history classes that I began to learn about some of the atrocities committed in the past: the imprisonment of Japanese-Americans whose only crime was their ethnicity, the senseless destruction of prosperous black American communities by vicious mobs, the genocide of Native Americans, the harassment and mistreatment of German and Italian-Americans because of their ethnicity during both World Wars because many still spoke their own language. The teaching of German in some states was even out-lawed. These idiotic acts of violence and cruelty are very much akin to the seeds that gave roots to the Holocaust.
It was only a few years back I learned of the vicious, cruel destruction and murder in Tulsa. As any sane person would be, I was sickened by this wanton act of mob violence. Even in the college courses, this particular tragedy was not covered. We were led to believe these types of vile, nasty acts only occurred in the Deep South or the acts elsewhere in the U.S. were largely marginalized.
As unpleasant as it is, these acts of hatred need to be taught so we don’t allow the seeds of this hatred to take root again. When people speak of the Holocaust, they say, “Never again.” That’s why the Holocaust can never be erased from history books. Students must learn about it and similar acts in our own country so that we can say, “Never again.”
While students must learn about these vile acts of the past, there is no call for trying to shame individuals for being the ethnicity or color they are because of something done by people of their ethnicity or color in the past. Educating students about all U.S. history is the key to preventing future destructive acts. If only people would listen to what the great leader, Martin Luther King, Jr., said about the future in his “I Have a Dream” speech: Judge people by who they are, by their character — and not their color or ethnicity.
R.W. Lamb,
Iola, Kan.
