Thomas White’s recent warning in the Ledger -Transcript about the “divisive concepts” legislation (“Fear of the past will hold us back,” Dec. 30), or as it is legislatively known, the Right to Freedom from Discrimination in Workplaces and Education Act, reminds me of the time in the 1950s when the Soviet Union and its satellites began to rewrite their own history, scrubbing it of any embarrassing people or events. Back then, we called it “revisionist history” and were greatly amused that only certified heroes and rosy outcomes were allowed to reach the public’s eyes and ears. Even Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake” ballet was rewritten to have the prince and his maiden ride off into the sunset on a swan boat.
In those innocent years, we later learned that in East Germany, the Stasi was encouraging informers to identify citizens not properly following the party line. Now, according to White, we have Moms for Liberty in our backyards offering “bounties to catch offending teachers.” Apparently, it is only a matter of time before some teacher in this country will wind up being reported for explaining the Three-fifths Compromise of the 1787 Constitutional Convention to students. With our legislation beginning to take on the air of politburo newspeak, we might well be on the road to becoming the political machine we found so amusing back in the 1950s, that golden age to which all too many Americans think they wish to return.
David Simpson
Rindge