LEFTY HARRY
It is so tiring to see The Times and other papers put out puff pieces on shopworn leftists like Harry Belafonte (“Belafonte: A New Role as Diplomat,” by Dennis McDougal, June 23).
Sure, Belafonte is sincere in his concern over the famine in Ethiopia (who isn’t?), but as his comments show, he is certainly not the “apolitical” creature that McDougal describes him as being.
Not once could Belafonte bring himself to criticize Marxism and its role in creating the present Ethiopian famine. The fact that Ethiopia’s Marxist tyranny has purposely cut off aid to anti-Marxist rebel-controlled areas, spent $100 million celebrating the 10th anniversary of their Communist Revolution instead of feeding the starving, and destroyed the country’s agricultural system through collectivization seems to be of no concern to Belafonte.
No, he would prefer, as Jeane Kirkpatrick would say, to “blame America first.”
It is appalling that Belafonte could analogize petty doctrinal differences between Marxism and Communism to the diversity of Christian belief. Doesn’t Belafonte know that the Ethiopian Marxists have assassinated bishops, destroyed churches and terrorized believers since coming to power?
LANCE T. IZUMI
Gardena
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