To the editor: Guest contributor Bee Vang’s op-ed was spot on (“What Clint Eastwood’s ‘Gran Torino’ got right — and what America refused to learn,” Feb. 4). America’s original sin, systemic racism, has never been fully acknowledged by our political or media class. And that willful ignorance gave us the racist leadership of President Trump and his current minions in the Republican Party.
The message of racial/ethnic pluralism, reflective in Clint Eastwood’s masterpiece “Gran Torino,” was evidently lost on the white population that viewed it. This nation is now in deep jeopardy of losing its democratic structures due to the lethal viruses of prejudice and bigotry that have not abated since the inception of this society in 1776. One has to ponder what the U.S. will be honoring on July 4 of this year, as we “celebrate” our 250-year anniversary. Perhaps we should be authentic to ourselves and cancel the proceedings.
Bob Teigan, Santa Susana