I was amused to read Phil Peterson’s letter labeled “History-revision by omission” where he gave several examples when the Republican party supported legislation that supported civil rights for African-Americans. He notes that such legislation was strongly opposed by the former southern wing of the Democratic party. However, Peterson somehow managed to omit that the Civil Rights Act was an initiative of the Democratic Johnson administration. And even more startling was his complete omission of what happened in 1968 when Nixon and the Republican party made overtly racist appeals to Southern Democrats a centerpiece of their policy, a policy that continues in an even more extreme form to this day. If one is going to recite omissions in history one shouldn’t stop in 1964.

Eric Adelberger

San Juan Island