Greece

In response to “From Bad to Worse,” editorial, June 21:

As a Greek citizen and scholar I found your editorial very offending. Your sarcastic statement that Greece “claims” (my quotation mark) to have invented democracy is insulting to all Greeks.

Especially disturbing is your passing judgment as to how voters of a free society such as Greece should vote. It reflects an elitist as well as an interventionist attitude on your behalf. You seem to be nostalgic for the days when the U.S. government manipulated political life in Greece by undermining popularly elected governments and assisting a military dictatorship. Well, those days are long gone.

Greeks have now a true democracy again. It is a democracy free of U.S. government intervention, and offers, unlike that of the U.S., more than just two choices. Greeks, like most democratic European nations, have a truly pluralistic democracy with political parties of the right, middle and left, all represented in the Parliament. That is the ultimate sign of a true democracy.

Your mocking of the way the Greeks voted on June 19 reflects your true feelings about Greece. You do not care about democracy in Greece; all you want is a “friendly government.” Unfortunately for you, Greeks have other ideas.

MICHAEL KARADANOPOULOS

Sherman Oaks