This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2008, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
"This America is not the same country I grew up in," laments Colleen Thistle ("It's time for America to stand up and take back our country," Opinion, June 1). Unfortunately, the country she remembers never existed. Born in 1951, Thistle thinks Ike and JFK were respected, listened to. She forgets Suez (1956), a Venezuelan mob attacking Vice President Nixon (1958), the Berlin Wall (1961), Cuban missiles (1962). Even then our nose poked other countries: Iran (1953), Guatemala (1954), Vietnam (1954), Bay of Pigs (1961). Education wasn't better. America was short 135,000 teachers when Colleen started school, and barely half our students graduated high school. Tomorrow's Illiterates (published 1961) proved we couldn't even teach reading. The "organized and disciplined nation" she remembers ignored the chaos of "massive resistance" to public school desegregation.
Thistle wants "Americans to stand up, get angry and take back our country." But who are we angry with, and from whom do we take back the country? We Americans elected President Bush, Congress, our governors, state legislators, mayors, city councils and school boards. "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."
Richard Irons
Salt Lake City
