Gratz Responds

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Editor,

Responding briefly to Mr. Foley’s letter of Jan. 8, the term “redneck” was meant to be disparaging.  As in the syllogism, all redneck’s may be white and Christian, but that does not mean to suggest that all white Christian’s are rednecks. A redneck is one of that small minority of rubes who passionately cling to their bigotry, all the while denying they are bigots. What I meant was that when the ACLU’s spotlight was aimed at Laguna Beach, we responded in the same way – rather than thinking through whether this respected organization’s allegations have any merit.

Whether they do is an evaluation all of us need to make, but you need to read the complaint in the lawsuit as well as the statements of many of the homeless as to how they are treated in Laguna Beach. Do Friendship Shelter and the Alternative Sleeping Location do good? Of course they do. Is it adequate, read the stuff, all available on line, and think about it.

Like the poor, the homeless are always with us.  It is not their problem; is society’s as a whole. We need to look at the ACLU’s accusations and see if they have merit. We haven’t done that, any more than the howling mob at Central High screaming support of Governor Faubus read the transcripts of the black students they were clamoring to block.  Those are the people I characterized as “rednecks.”

 

Gene Gratz, Laguna Beach

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  1. “who passionately cling to their bigotry, all the while denying they are bigots” – Mr. Gratz, this sums up your eloquent and elegant letter of this week. What other racial, ethnic or cultural terms will you be defending next, hmmm? And what does any of that have to so with the city’s response to the ACLU.

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