‘Lax Teaching of Values’

In response to Jeane Kirkpatrick’s article, “Blame State Dept., Marines and Lax Teaching of Values” (Editorial Pages, April 17):

Kirkpatrick is hardly the person to be talking to educators about the kinds of values they might teach in schools. As a member of the Reagan Administration and key architect of its foreign policy, she is famous for telling us that between revolutions of the left and dictatorships of the right, the United States would be better off siding with the dictators.

Implementing this policy, Reagan has set out to destroy the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua while ignoring the fascist dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet in Chile.

Values and ethics are promoted, reinforced and disseminated by the political leaders in society. When fanatical anti-communists like Kirkpatrick, Reagan and other members of his Administration (Oliver North and his gang) are in power, we can only expect the worst. Through their lies and deeds--trading with Iranian terrorists and arming the contras, ex-Somoza terrorists--they reflect the values which they would have us learn. Hitler rose to power to establish Nazi fascism partly under the banner of anti-communism and partly due to racism against Jews. Americans must take a critical look at the values promoted by the Reagan Administration: acceptance of anti-communist dictatorships like the one in Chile and tolerance of the racist regime in South Africa. As a school administrator, I feel that critically thinking students must lose trust in a system led by political leaders like Reagan who systematically lie (or forget that they lie), corrupt the meaning of words and history by calling contra terrorists who specialize in the activity of killing women, children and other civilians “freedom fighters,” and who disguise their underlying racism with such euphemisms as “constructive engagement” and requests that the Sandinistas say, “uncle.”

DAVID L. BAYER

Burbank