Ignorance should be the biggest fear

To the editor:

The latest “bogeymen” to disrupt sleep, and cause handwringing angst on the right, is critical race theory and the 1619 Project; As if the country needed another reason to become more divisive.

To paraphrase Franklin Delano Roosevelt, arguably one of America’s greatest presidents: “The only history we need to fear is history itself.”

Fear is a most potent weapon, whether in the hands of a would-be autocrat or in the messaging of ignorant partisans. This polemic is simply another take on the old “Lost Cause” argument that is propagated by some factions on the right.

The Atlantic Magazine had an article in this month’s issue addressing this very subject: “The War on Nostalgia: What will it take to end the myth of the Lost Cause?”

And, very appropriately to the subject of this letter, “The Neglected Origin Stories of Black America.”

To quote the multi-talented Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: “Nothing is more frightful than to see ignorance in action.”

What we should fear for both ourselves and for the future of our children isn’t the knowledge of history, but the ignorance thereof.

Michael S. Kinser

Portland