It’s Not Just the Media Who Suspect Terrorists

Re “Divided We Stand” (April 28):

Much is being made of “political opportunists” and the media jumping to conclusions as to who was to blame for the Oklahoma horror, and for singling out Arabs and Muslims as the perpetrators.

Excuse me, but here’s one old lady who hardly needed either the media or any politician to give me the idea it might have been terrorists from the Middle East after the World Trade Center, the Marine barracks and our embassy in Beirut.

I am somewhat relieved that the Oklahoma bombing does not appear to be of Arab or Muslim instigation. However, I have no strong hope that there won’t be a repeat of the Trade Center in this country.

As for the media and politicians jumping the gun--when haven’t they?

EVE LANGSTAFF

Hemet

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“I have been expecting a revival of lynching, a revival of racial violence”--the kind of violence that “has Old South fingerprints all over it,” Nell Painter says in “Divided We Stand.”

Having been raised in the “Old South,” should I feel offended to be classified out of hand with those who participated in lynchings?

No, it means that when a group has the unfortunate occasion to have a type of reprehensible behavior associated with it, humans tend to identify that group whenever that distinctive, but by no means exclusive, behavior occurs.

Is there bias, hatred and discrimination in the world? Yes, but knee-jerk reaction to other knee-jerk reactions will not move us forward as a society.

Can we all, of all political persuasions, lighten up a bit on being offended at every turn?

FORREST BONNER

Huntington Beach