After (painfully) watching ABC’s “A Star-Spangled Celebration”--a...

After (painfully) watching ABC’s “A Star-Spangled Celebration”--a purported tribute to America--one can only ask to what audience of intelligent patriots and lovers of real talent could such a farce have been directed? Despite all the glitz, all the noise, all the Oprah, all the Tony Bennett, all the Kareem, all the Suzanne Somers, Ben Vereen, et al., this was one of the most pointless, over-promoted and unredeeming TV productions ever foisted upon the gullible citizenry of this great country under the guise of combatting illiteracy. When will the youngsters who run American television ever learn that not all of their audience is made up of mindless teen-agers who weren’t even born when such purveyors of real talent as Fred Astaire and Jackie Gleason were in their prime?

William S. Koester, Upland