COUNTERPUNCH LETTERS : Steve Allen’s Mythos

In regard to Steve Allen’s Sept. 17 Counterpunch article:

The key problem with Allen’s arguments appears connected to the mythos of the “American Family,” a myth, pure and simple, that grew out of post-war America.

I would submit that the strength or failure of individual families is derived from the strength of the individuals that make up those households; not, as Allen suggests, a strict adherence to an outmoded and inflexible model of social organization.

Allen deftly avoids damning himself by failing to attach any racial overtones to his diatribe, but statistics would seem to indicate that his pontificating finger gestures in the direction of the minority community first and foremost. Where else are education standards lower than in low-income communities? Who makes up those communities but blacks, Latinos and other minorities that were never included in Allen’s “American Family” mythos to begin with?

DOSELLE YOUNG

Santa Monica