Letters to the Editor: Saturday, May 25, 2024

America has been a contradicting patchwork of exceptionalism and flaws.  America has made mistakes like every other nation while it has also known phenomenal achievement and virtue.  Dismissed too much now from our history is anything honorable such as are those who fought to end slavery, tyranny, and oppression and defend freedom and liberty, often times for those they didn’t even know.  Many sacrificing their lives.

Martin Treptow was an Army private who was killed in action in World War I.  He had been keeping a journal where they later found this entry: “My Pledge:  America must win this war.  Therefore I will work, I will save, I will sacrifice, I will endure, I will fight cheerfully and do my utmost, as if the issue of the whole struggle depended on me alone.”