Columnists shouldn’t speak ill of dead
While not a fan of Hugh Hefner, I find the Ross Douthat column disparaging him after his death to be offensive, “Hefner’s flesh-peddling life hardly worth celebrating,” Opinion, Oct. 3. There was a time when speaking ill of the dead was frowned upon and was never done by responsible journalists. My mother used to say “If you can’t say something nice about someone, don’t say anything.” These were good words to live by and apply particularly in reference to the dead who cannot defend themselves. Can we return to civility or have we passed the point of no return?
BILL JUKINS, DUNWOODY
Progressives had Confederate nostalgia too
While it’s true to imply 1950s’ white racists called for the completion of the Stone Mountain Memorial after Brown vs. Board of Education, Kevin Riley and the Atlanta History Center miss an important distinction, “Understanding Stone Mountain’s history,” Opinion, Oct. 1.
It wasn’t just bigoted, battle flag-waving rabble-rousers of that era celebrating Confederate history in the wake of Brown decision. There were innumerable good, well-intentioned progressives such as Riley’s own famous AJC predecessor, Ralph McGill. A champion of desegregation, McGill was reviled by Georgia’s racist governor Marvin Griffin and klansmen, alike. But, each Sunday for several years, McGill’s newspaper published its own Civil War commemorative insert, The Atlanta Century. Before the Brown decision, a huge buildup for the upcoming Civil War centennial was underway. Not just racists, but there were many people of goodwill, including scads of reputable historians, wistfully looking backwards for their own many reasons.
JIM CONNAH, SANDY SPRINGS
