Kudos to James E. Felten for his excellent letter to the Washington City Paper (The Mail, 7/23). He hit the nail on the head with his remark about the “un-Christian character and moral bankruptcy of Washington’s secular left,” as shown by the torrent of vitriolic, bilious letters that greeted Stanley Davis’ letter. The comments that came in were a bunch of reverse-racist claptrap.

Rather than recognizing who their real opponents are (today’s hard-right Republican Party leadership and the Bush Co. cabal) and trying to convince the public of the rightness of their progressive ideals (something Bush Co., ironically, has made rather easy to do, except among the hard-core fundamentalist right), these folks apparently prefer to lob incendiary, vicious, and clearly absurd charges (up to and including genocide) at anyone (including likely allies) who simply points out the obvious. That obvious, by the way, is that Andrea Carter got fired from her coffeehouse job because of her attitude toward certain (i.e., white) customers.

Dressing up her behavior at her former place of employment as an appropriate response to centuries of American slavery, Jim Crow, and oppression is sad and silly. While I’m glad she has found a new calling with her line of “Uppity Negro/Uppity Negress” shirts (proving that in America, everything can be readily commodified), Carter is hardly a victim of anything but her own attitude. And her would-be defenders make a mockery of the ecumenical, progressive spirit that inspired the civil-rights movement.

Logan Circle