Half-truths about history: Your letters

Half-truths about history

The Watertown Public Opinion continues with its half-truths as usual. (Political pressure concerns retired teachers, June 18)

The negatives of American history were part of history lessons 70 years ago. What has changed is the effort to distort that truth by the media. The great-great grandparents of today's students arrived in America after the Civil War and mostly lived out their lives without even seeing a person of a different race. Yet you are failing to note that today's history lesson is supposed to describe second-graders as being a product of white privilege. Tell that to those who struggled and often failed 150 years ago.

Most people, regardless of race, are focused on just surviving and do not spend their time trying to make life difficult for minorities. You are not giving a total picture of the debate regarding the current effort to describe our history as a bitter war between the races and everything accomplished by the white population arose out of white privilege. The fact is that many of today's comforts arose from the mindset that a problem was not something you accepted, but one you solved. It was not a product of privilege. I suggest you include in your articles all of the issues in disagreements.

Daniel Johnson, Watertown