In response to “Letter:” published in the Nov. 7 edition of The Malibu Times
The editors have asked me to keep my response brief. Once again, Mr. Jones seems to think that he knows better than anyone else. I’m sorry that my response to his one-sided diatribe wasn’t up to his standards, not! If you are going to write letters to the editor, don’t think that every reply will be to your liking, nor that the manner of rebuttal will be on your terms. The newspaper is not giving us competing columns. If they did, I would hope that eventually we could find a middle ground of understanding. That would be my goal. America is already a divided nation. Do you ever ask yourself why? What part you play in that? You talk of scholarship. Scholarship is nothing without wisdom. Wisdom is not intolerant.
I started my critique of your opinions with a respectful understanding of your right to have them. You failed to do the same for me. It was you who challenged other people’s views of the Constitution and threw out the absurd notion that liberals don’t care about it. How pompous. My words and their meaning elude you because you have indeed blinded yourself to the reality of the evolving world around you. What kind of world do you wish to live in? It seems that you want to live in the past. A past where equality is not handed out evenly to all members of society. It’s not “blind emotion” that drives my passion. It is your inability to admit that this “even handed application of both state and federal constitutions” has never been applied equally. Not to this very day. White American men, since the beginning of America, have kept equality from blacks, women, the Chinese, other immigrants, the LGBTQ community and especially Native Americans. This has got to stop.
I am a liberal. I believe in the Constitution. I believe that it is the most sacred document we have as Americans. That it was designed to grow as we grew, to adapt to an evolving America. I believe that it is what gives all of us, in addition to our rights, the responsibility as citizens to stand up and defend it. To make sure that these rights are applied equally.
“You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you will join us”
—John Lennon
Charles Dresser