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 expect better from The Post, in terms of both independence and accuracy. Though I was only 11 at the time, I was following all those events. What was apparent to a viewer of contemporary TV news — and should be evident from a current perusal of material concerning those events — is that confrontations between police and protesters ensued after the city refused to issue permits to allow demonstrators to sleep in city parks, and the police were sent in to clear the parks. The antiwar protesters, like today’s antiwar protesters, were overwhelmingly peaceful. The authorities, not those questioning authority, were the principal purveyors of violence. And with all the national media outlets in the city to cover the convention, one of the main slogans that emerged from the protests was “The whole world is watching.”
Charles H. Roberts, Washington
A bad valuation
Regarding Philip Kennicott’s May 4 Critic’s Notebook, “Washington’s makeover for GWU protest”:
It is astonishing that Kennicott would praise the defacement of a statue of George Washington by pro-Hamas protesters as “framing” their demands “as part of a continuum of American values.” The protests at George Washington University have called for the murder of Jews (i.e., “intifada”), the “final solution” for “Zionist pigs,” the targeting of civilians for murder and rape (“by any means necessary”), and “glory to our martyrs,” celebrating the Oct. 7 massacre. Please tell me which of these “demands” are American values.
In fact, in protesters’ failure even to acknowledge the hostages — including Americans, who are still being held by Hamas — and in their call for the annihilation of Israel — the only democratic country in the Middle East, where both Israeli Arabs and Jews have the right to vote, where women have equal rights, and where LGBTQ+ people are not thrown off rooftops — they demonstrate their hatred of American values. That is why in numerous protests across the country, they have replaced American flags with Palestinian flags. Meanwhile, Kennicott echoes Hamas propaganda, citing casualty figures from the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry that do not distinguish between terrorists and civilians, and asserting that Israel has lost “the symbolic war” on America’s campuses. In fact, recent polls show 80 percent of Americans support Israel in its war against Hamas. There are about 2,000 four-year colleges and universities in this country, and the students supporting these “encampments” and other anti-Israel protests are a very small, very vocal minority.
Tamara Gelboin, Arlington
Philip Kennicott should have included more information about Refaat Alareer, in whose memory George Washington University protesters have named a library tent. Kennicott described him as a Palestinian poet and writer whose last poem has become “the elegy” for the pro-Palestinian movement.
Responding to a report of an Israeli baby being burned alive in an oven on Oct. 7, Alareer tweeted, “With or without baking powder?”
This is the morality being honored by the protesters, which I hope does not represent “American values.”
Michael Raviv, Washington
Inappropriate teasing
Whew, I never got past the May 5 front page — talk about sexism.
The teaser for the Arts & Style article “A magnificent specimen”: “Tom Selleck is 79 and, whew, just look at that magnificent specimen.”
Would you say that about a woman of any age? Whew, The Post is a bust!
James Kout, Bowie
Palms are sweaty (there’s garlic powder in Mom’s spaghetti)
The recipe accompanying Aaron Hutcherson’s May 8 Dinner in Minutes column, “My mom’s spaghetti is a sweet taste of home,” certainly reminded me of my family’s, especially the addition of sausage to the beef. But garlic powder? Open your jar and have a sniff — it’s old, even rancid. Why oh why not use fresh garlic? There was no garlic powder in my nonna’s kitchen in the Richmond District of San Francisco and, Lord knows, none in the kitchen of our relatives in Italy’s Piemonte region.
Also: Ditch the sugar.
Ray Arnaudo, Mountain View, Calif.
Lose the sauce
Regarding the May 6 front-page article “At Vatican, transgender sex workers find acceptance”:
Though I was happy to see The Post cover Pope Francis’s relationship with transgender people — and offer a fuller picture of the complicated relationship between LGBTQ+ people and the Catholic Church — it was clear off the bat that the article was written by men. Must we really refer to Latina women as “saucy”?
Jason L. Miller, Washington
The article about the pope and transgender people was wonderful. But the online headline, “How Pope Francis opened the Vatican to transgender sex workers,” had the wrong connotation, implying that the people are at the Vatican to perform sex work. The headline would be clearer if it read, “Pope Francis blesses all who ask, including transgender sex workers,” or “How Pope Francis opened the Vatican’s doors to all in need, including transgender sex workers.”
Zohar Rom, Arlington
Keep keeping Food that keeps
Every week, my household looks forward to reading the Food section over breakfast. Sometimes, a Wednesday recipe finds its way onto our table the same evening. We call it “paper to table.” We love the focus on healthy meals and the recipes with vegan and gluten-free options. I am grateful that the Food section has not gone the way of the Business section. Please keep this weekly feature. Thank you to all the staff who make it possible.
Valerie Preiss, Arlington
Simplistic coverage fanned the flames of hate
We deplore the death toll in Gaza and are proud parents of a University of Virginia student involved in peaceful protests. We also listened to the May 7 town hall the university held in the aftermath of tent clearing and arrests on May 4. University President James E. Ryan described the facts and circumstances that drove his decision to remove the encampment, and we found his logic compelling. The May 8 Metro article “U-Va. defends its protest response” omitted many of these key facts and instead focused on the assertions of encampment advocates.
For example, the article did not convey that U-Va. authorities had made clear that tents were not allowed at least five days before they were removed and that police warned protesters with megaphones hours before tent removal. Instead, the article highlighted a trivial point about a change in a document about tents, as if the protesters had no idea tents were disallowed. The article also left out the fact that U-Va. leaders were concerned about people who had no affiliation with the school, including some known agitators associated with violent activities, joining the encampment. (Eight of the 27 arrested were outsiders.) Ryan made clear his decision was an agonizing one, but the article conveyed a one-sided, simplistic view of this tough call.
We detest right-wing media for distorted reporting that fans the flames of hate, but The Post is doing the same thing.
John Ausink and Elaine Simmons, Arlington
Purge this from the page
The May 9 front-page article “Under Putin, liberalism is no longer on the syllabus” drew important attention to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “edicts that classrooms become echo chambers of the authoritarian nativism and historical distortions that Putin uses to justify his war and his will.”
I hope your headline writers will become more careful telegraphing a writer’s point because, for some reason, the web headline was “To please Putin, universities purge liberals and embrace patriots.” The whole point of the article was that demanding fealty is not patriotism; it is fascism. Liberalism is not the opposite of patriotism. We cannot allow ourselves to become Russian stooges. We cannot allow the banalization of authoritarianism.
Elizabeth Close, Washington
Good advice for those who take it
Regarding Becca Rothfeld’s May 5 Book World review, “This ‘free thinker’ has a message for progressives: Grow up already”:
In a voice dripping with sarcasm, Rothfeld lobbed a dizzying barrage of insults at Nellie Bowles and the narrative of a disillusioned progressive that Bowles presents in “Morning After the Revolution: Dispatches From the Wrong Side of History.” Rothfeld criticized Bowles for “sneering at the alleged excesses of progressivism,” then attempted to out-sneer her. Conservatism, for instance, is “an unfortunate symptom of aging, not unlike senility.” At the end, after this scattershot salvo, Rothfeld piously intoned, “After all, how is democracy possible if we write off everyone who disagrees with us?” Well said, Ms. Rothfeld, except that your entire review up to that point was a prime example of the attitude you claimed to deplore.
Conrad Berger, Hyattsville
Want to give back to teachers? Improve education coverage.
I’ve been a teacher for the past six years, and this one is going to be my last. The lack of media recognition of National Teacher Appreciation Week, which was May 6 to 10, highlights one of the many reasons I’m leaving this profession. A deep search of Post articles from the past couple of weeks turned up very little coverage of education and teachers in general, aside from the protests on college campuses. This lack of coverage reveals the lack of appreciation and understanding our country has for educators, which harms teachers’ ability to work effectively and maintain a healthy life balance. I hear more and more stories from other teachers about the consistent disrespect they experience from students, parents and even administrators. I have many stories of my own; however, this is not a problem that I alone can address.
Before I pack up my classroom for the last time next month, I have one request of The Post and other outlets: Please tell more of our stories so that the country could come to understand what really happens behind the doors of a school and of a classroom. If our stories are not heard and understood, I fear for the hearts and minds and souls of the teachers who will remain in the system after me. I fear for the students who say they want to be teachers as well, not understanding what it takes to stand up in front of a classroom in the first place. As a teacher, I always wanted to inspire students, but now I just hope they will not follow in my footsteps to experiences I don’t want them to have.
I admire the teachers who press on and have love for education in the midst of multiplying challenges. But, for the sake of my values and my own soul, I must choose not to go forward with them.
Rebecca Grackin, Frederick
Not renaming Key would be a bridge too far
The historians quoted in the May 8 Metro article “‘What should the name be in 2024?’” whitewashed the real story of Francis Scott Key and slavery. Discussing whether Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge should be renamed, they studiously avoided mentioning Key’s tenure as district attorney for the city of Washington from 1833 to 1840. Key’s views on slavery were not “contradictory,” as the article characterized one historian’s claims, at least not when he had the power to enforce them in this position. His actions were consistent: impunity for enslavers, disdain for people of color and persecution for advocates of human rights.
When abolitionist editor Benjamin Lundy reported that a free woman of color had drowned in the Potomac trying to escape a city constable who sought to kidnap her and sell her into slavery, Key didn’t prosecute the constable. He indicted Lundy for defaming his police force. In 1835, Key charged a Connecticut doctor with “seditious libel” for the offense of possessing a trunk full of abolitionist pamphlets in his Georgetown apartment. (The doctor was acquitted.) When Key opposed calls to abolish bondage in D.C., antislavery activists mocked the hypocrisy that reigned in the nation’s capital, which they dubbed “Land of the Free. Home of the Oppressed.” The quoted historians also left unmentioned that Key successfully lobbied the Senate in 1836 to secure confirmation of his best friend and brother-in-law, Roger B. Taney, as chief justice of the United States. Taney, already known for his contempt for Black people, went on to write the 1857 Dred Scott decision, upholding the practice of slavery in the U.S. territories, denying Black Americans citizenship and striking down the Missouri Compromise.
In his lifetime, Key was known as an implacable, if liberal-minded, defender of the cruel and inhumane slave system, a reputation he deserves today.
Jefferson Morley, Washington
The writer is author of “Snow-Storm in August: Washington City, Francis Scott Key, and the Forgotten Race Riot of 1835.”
I am perplexed by The Post’s policy of referring to all slaveholders as “enslavers.” Enslaving is the action of turning a free person into a slave. There were enslavers in antebellum America who captured free Black people and sold them into slavery, but Francis Scott Key was not one of those. Key was, however, a slave owner. We can all agree it’s despicable to own other human beings. There’s no need to muddle the discussion with misleading language to prove that point.
Moses Hetfield, Silver Spring
The writer teaches U.S. history for Montgomery County Public Schools.
It didn’t just fall over
Robert Tiller’s May 4 Free for All letter, “Missing the boat,” stated that if something collapses, it does so spontaneously with no outside influence. Common sense and the dictionary beg to differ. According to Merriam-Webster, “collapse” means “fall or shrink together abruptly and completely” and “fall into a jumbled or flattened mass through the force of external pressure.”
Nothing can happen without something causing it. Things collapse from some sort of outside force, whether it’s gravity, an earthquake, an explosion, a heavy impact or just about anything else. To claim that saying the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed implies no outside force is to ignore the forces of physical science.
Peter D. Marshall, Martinsville, Va.
Ditch the single-use bags for the stronger stuff
Regarding Stephen Frank’s May 11 Free for All letter, “Okay, maybe a little single-use plastic wouldn’t hurt,” itself a response to Jeanne Beare’s May 4 Free for All letter, “Paper or plastic?”:
I’m with Beare, who complained about The Post’s use of plastic bags for home delivery. I’ll add to that by complaining that the bags do no good if they are full of holes. Many of my papers arrive in such bags and are sopping. There used to be tubes for newspapers mounted on mailbox posts. What happened to them?
Emily Johnston, Sykesville, Md.
