THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, May 13, 1995 TAG: 9505130005
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Medium: 56 lines
Regarding ``Hate is a loser's game'' (editorial, May 7): Though you use history to illustrate your point, you seem to forget:
In the 1850s, the United States sent federal troops to brutalize the Utah Mormons simply because they were considered outside the pale of American decorum.
In the 1860s, the federal government invaded the South under the pretext of first preserving the Union, then freeing the slaves, killing 25 percent of the South's white-male population and purposefully destroying its culture and economy. This was followed by 10 years of brutal ``Reconstruction'' during which the federal government allowed wholesale subjugation of Southerners and legalized theft of their property.
From the 1870s until the end of the century, the U.S. government systematically and with an effort that would have done Joseph Stalin proud sought, not for the first time, to eradicate the American Indian. When this failed, the federal government placed what Indians were left in internment camps called reservations. This is also the era when the federal government sold out Midwestern farmers to the powerful railroad interests and sent U.S. troops to shoot down American workers during the Pullman Strike.
In the 20th century, the federal government sent the U.S. Army to beat and terrorize World War I veterans when they marched on Washington, D.C., in peaceful protest.
The federal government sanctioned the machine-gunning of American workers during the Ford Motor Co. strike of 1932 under the pretext that the strike was ``communist inspired.''
In World War II, the federal government interned hundreds of Americans for ``their own protection'' simply because they were of Japanese descent. The post-World War II years brought the government-sanctioned McCarthy hearings, worldwide clandestine activities against foreign governments and outright political murder in South America - all under the pretext of national defense.
Over the past 30 years, the U.S. government has subtly usurped the rights of its citizens until there is little we do that is not subject to federal control.
The carefully protected states' rights of the original and true U.S. Constitution have been eroded to the point that the states are little more than colonies of an all-pervading federal government. We are told this is done to ``secure our rights and liberty.''
Given the record of the federal government and the character of our national leaders, I suggest that the true ``loser'' in this ``game'' is the American citizen; and though I abjure terrorism, a little ``paranoia'' may be in order.
CHARLES EDWARD FOILES
Chesapeake, May 7, 1995 by CNB