Every week, The Post runs a collection of letters of readers’ grievances — pointing out grammatical mistakes, missing coverage and inconsistencies. These letters tell us what we did wrong and, occasionally, offer praise. Here, we present this week’s Free for All letters.
I’m glad the protester didn’t get into the rally because, despite temperature testing, it was a high-risk area. Singing and chanting in large groups with no masks are things all Americans should avoid in the time of the novel coronavirus.
Deborah Schumann, Bethesda
The June 21 news article “After campaign boasting, a smaller-than-anticipated crowd attends rally,” said, reporting on President Trump’s sparse Tulsa rally crowd, “On the flight to Tulsa, as news cameras showed the spattering of people gathered outside and the vacant seats inside, Trump was unhappy with the sparse crowds and called his aides to try to fix it.”
What caused the spattering? Was it raining, or did a large flock of starlings fly directly overhead? If the latter caused the spatter, that might have caused rallygoers to scatter. Or, perhaps, the intended word was “smattering,” not “spattering.”
Donald R. Juran, Rockville
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Enslavement was not over
Michele L. Norris’s June 14 op-ed, “The diabolical irony of Trump’s decision to speak in Tulsa,” presented a reasoned observation of the date and place of the event. However, to claim that “the last remaining enslaved blacks in Texas learned, two years late, that the Emancipation Proclamation had set them free” was arresting. The Emancipation Proclamation, directed toward the states or parts of states in rebellion, did not actually free anyone.
Wilma King, Chantilly
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The Post should apologize
It’s no coincidence, I guess, that last month, as we neared the historic vote on D.C. statehood, I picked up where I had recently left off reading the book “Chocolate City: A History of Race and Democracy in the Nation’s Capital.” Again, I was stunned by the severity of the language in one example from the pages of The Post more than a century ago.
The book reports that in response to a congressional debate on restoring suffrage to residents of the District, The Post wrote in 1878 that, even though “the present form of alien government is about as bad as can be devised, a system which gives the control of the District to ignorant and depraved negroes, is still worse.”
As the Equal Justice Initiative makes clear: “Publicly confronting the truth about our history is the first step toward recovery and reconciliation.” I call for The Post to acknowledge its role in creating structures that continue to preserve racism — including and beyond disenfranchisement of the District’s citizens — and to make a loud and public apology.
Ann B. Jimerson, Washington
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Dylan, move over: Music can help change the world
Thanks to Chris Richards for his June 20 Style article on Bob Dylan, “Tangled up in you.” Dylan became irrelevant when he switched to rock-and-roll — neither his lyrics nor chord cadences resonate like his earlier protest ballads such as “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll.” He never reached the level of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young in such songs as “Ohio,” with its refrain “four dead in Ohio.” Joan Baez continues the peace work. But as to a rock generation (mine) switching to self-expression over collective political action? Very few had the analysis of collective action in the 1960s after all, most saving their own skin from the draft and death in Vietnam.
Efforts similar to ours to end the draft continue today in Brunswick, Ga., where members of the Kings Bay 7 Plowshares await sentencing for their action against Trident submarines and their ballistic missiles that could end life as we know it. These few have never given up the struggle, Dylan and his sad comment, “Songs can’t save the world,” aside.
David Eberhardt, Baltimore
The writer spent 21 months in federal prison for an anti-draft protest in 1967.
In 1965, I was in the “folkie mob” that sided with the Newport Folk Festival fans who booed Bob Dylan when he “went electric” and performed rock-and-roll on that hallowed stage. I was a high school senior infatuated with the man and his songs of civil rights, peace and social justice. I wanted to journey along with “Like a Rolling Stone,” but when Dylan altered his worldview, I felt abandoned. No longer an adoring devotee, I took his poster off my bedroom door.
In his thought-provoking review of Dylan’s new album, Chris Richards described Dylan’s pivot from changing the world outside to changing, as a filmmaker put it, “what was inside of people’s heads” through self-expression. Richards lamented the decline of rock-and-roll — and protest music — in the current Information Age and concluded that “Changing our minds is easy. Changing our world is hard.”
Over the years, the singing of protest songs has been carried on by Pete Seeger, Bruce Springsteen and others. And, to their credit, various rockers, soul singers, jazz artists and rappers have continued on in this tradition. But today, as activists crowd our streets and airwaves, we hear a lot of chants but very few songs.
As the spirit of “We Shall Overcome” is being rekindled, let’s hope for some new songs of solidarity and protest. As was pointed out in 1847, in the Voice of Labor, “greater than the philosopher or the legislator is the child of song.”
Saul Schniderman, Takoma Park
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Omissions can be damaging
I noticed in the June 25 news article “Amid threats and political pushback, public health officials are leaving their posts” that Pennsylvania’s secretary of health was not referred to by name; she was just identified as “transgender.” Her name is Rachel Levine, and she is not only dealing with one of the most serious health crises this nation has ever seen, but she also still must battle for respect as a transgender woman. Omissions can be as damaging as direct prejudice, and I expect better from The Post.
Susannah Wellford, Washington
The writer is chief executive of Running Start, which trains young women to lead in politics.
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Words of comfort
Thanks to Seth Perlow for sharing a selection of poetry that speaks to our oxymoronic-sounding collective isolation during this “Time of Covid” [“The pandemic is a lonely time. These poems speak to our sense of solitude.,” Outlook, June 14]. Although it was perhaps unintended, I found that several of the poem excerpts also hinted at the sense of estrangement and frustration and hurt that has propelled so many Americans into the streets to demand an end to exclusionary racism in all its overt and insidious forms. Here is my contribution, from the least heralded English-language poet of them all, Anonymous (c. 1500):
Western wind, when wilt thou blow
The small rain down can rain?
Christ! if my love were in my arms,
And I in my bed again!
Nancy Maddox, Alexandria
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Far away but close to home
“ ‘A Burning’: Debut is one of this summer’s hottest,” Ron Charles’s June 17 Book World review of “A Burning” by Megha Majumdar, was very well-balanced and informative — except in the end. The story of “A Burning” revolves around three lives in contemporary India. Charles ended the review with the sentence: “Fortunately, all this takes place on the other side of the world and has nothing at all to do with us.”
Anil Prayag, Rockville
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Loyalty in action
The June 21 Sports profile of Stephen Jackson, “For Jackson, this is personal,” delivered an illuminating portrait of a man driven by his desire to protect and speak on behalf of those he loves. We know of many such stories, but what made this profile so compelling was the brief back story of adversity that Jackson experienced in his early life, and how it brought focus to the place from which character and strength in purpose can effectively emerge.
There is a lot of talk today of what it means to support the fight against racial injustice, much of which has been triggered by George Floyd’s death. However, I’m hard-pressed to think of a more forceful argument that describes a person’s dedication to loyalty and the protection of others — one so well-illustrated in this profile.
Jack Reale, Arlington
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Important — or unfair?
The June 18 Style article “Blackface incident in D.C. resurfaces amid protests” was an important story. Progressives flagellating each other is usually amusing, but this incident bordered on scary. The “journalists and political types from Washington’s power elite” have shown themselves at their best: aggressive, merciless, unforgiving, self-righteous and cowardly. And these types of people are the ones expected to relieve us from President Trump.
Do the participants in this story understand how poorly they show, personally and politically? Apparently not. But if this is what the country can expect post-Trump . . . the country is really in trouble.
Steve Baldwin, Springfield
Arthur Miller couldn’t have done a better job of portraying the hysteria of McCarthyism and political correctness run amok than the June 18 Style article about a blackface incident at a D.C. party. Two young women took it upon themselves to police the private Halloween party of a brilliant editorial cartoonist. They sought to ruin a woman in an admittedly ill-conceived costume that was meant to make fun of racism. Cartoonist Tom Toles, a co-host of the party, was forced to apologize publicly for an incident that took place two years ago in his own home. What’s next? An inspection of the books on his nightstand? His “friends” list?
To paraphrase Joseph N. Welch in his confrontation with Joseph McCarthy: At long last, Washington Post, have you no sense of decency?
Sandra Kashdan Werner, Washington
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Reviewers: It's not about you
“Melania Trump: Elusive first lady and avid creator of her own history,” Jane Eisner’s June 21 Book World review of Post reporter Mary Jordan’s book about Melania Trump, “The Art of Her Deal: The Untold Story of Melania Trump,” spent the first two paragraphs talking about Eisner’s dolls.
How were Eisner’s dolls significant to the first lady or the book? When I see irrelevancies such as this in any review, or for that matter any op-ed, article, analysis, etc., especially when they begin with “I,” I skip it, because I am almost always uninterested in the life or views of a journalist — unless said author has done something that should interest a reader in his or her life. Please, less of this nonsense in the future.
Howard Karten, Randolph, Mass.
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Think globally; report locally
President Trump might be the biggest game in town, but in its coverage, The Post seems to be forgetting that for Washington-area residents this is our town, and we both need and deserve thorough local coverage.
The Metro section is an emaciated adjunct to national and international news. A case in point: On June 22, the District entered Phase 2 of its reopening plan, but instead of giving us a list of venues and services affected (and their restrictions), we got only an article with scant information. And why has there been little or no reporting on local hospital costs for coronavirus patients and their families?
Please don’t forget that we — not the administration and not Congress — are The Post’s constituency.
Dina Modianot Fox, Washington
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What led to an important Juneteenth discovery
I always enjoy the Retropolis columns by Michael E. Ruane, but two recent columns illustrated not only Ruane’s ability to write history but also an understanding of the work that goes on behind the scenes that makes “historical discovery” possible.
In “A forgotten map of battleground graves” [Metro, June 18], Ruane made clear that the New York City Public Library “has had the map probably since it was first published in New York in 1864 and was well aware of its rarity and importance,” as noted by Ian Fowler, a curator in the library’s map division . . . But [a] scanning project made it available online for the first time . . . where . . . the researcher, spotted it.”
In “Texas’s original Juneteenth freedom decree found in the National Archives” [Metro, June 19], Ruane wrote that the original order “was located by Trevor Plante . . . who, because of current interest in the subject, was asked to search for it.” Not explicitly stated, but implied by Ruane, was that Plante was able to locate this order because a series of military orders were arranged, described and maintained by generations of National Archives employees.
In two fine articles, Ruane clarified that discovery, historical and otherwise, is usually not something taking place in a vacuum. Discovery is more often enabled by librarians and archivists; cataloguers and reference specialists; conservationists; and digital specialists, to name only a few. Their “routine” contributions to the study of our past are too often overlooked and underappreciated. Their work is worthy of support by the American people.
Jim Cassedy, Hyattsville
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Dismantling white fragility
I was disappointed and frustrated by Carlos Lozada’s June 21 Book World review, “Breaking away from ‘white fragility,’ ” and his missed opportunity to examine the nuances and relevance of Robin DiAngelo’s work on race.
Lozada wrote, “In a ‘White Fragility’ world, nothing ever changes because change would violate its premise.” And then he went on to question how today’s national reckoning on racial injustice and policing could come about if white fragility were prevalent. I would pose a different question: How could it possibly have taken us so long to get to today’s national reckoning if white fragility weren’t prevalent? How many black men need to be murdered by police before we demand and see change?
Lozada misunderstood, or maybe he couldn’t see, that DiAngelo’s whole book is about how it is only when we see white fragility clearly and don’t avert our eyes that we then can pay attention and focus our efforts and actions on changing the racist system.
I, like Lozada, hope that the reality of white fragility can someday prove fragile, not because it is a fragile or flawed construct as he contested, but because we see it clearly and can work each day to take concrete actions to dismantle it.
Kim Metz, Ellicott City
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What a funny thing to say
I disagree with the premise of the June 18 Metro article “Contest asks for bad dad jokes to fund good cause.” There are no bad dad jokes. The examples prove that.
Stan Crock, Bethesda
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