Standing Up for History

I am writing about the current tempest involving a student in a Thousand Oaks elementary school student who delivered a speech about Adolph Hitler as part of a school oratory contest.

The Conejo Valley school board and the schools superintendent have announced that only speeches about historical figures who have made a “positive contribution to society” would be considered in the future. I guess this means that no one will be allowed to speak on such figures as Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan, Pizarro, Napoleon Bonaparte, sundry American presidents who oversaw the extermination of many Native American tribes and the isolating of the remainder, Joseph Stalin, who was as evil and seemingly much worse than Hitler when it came to the wanton destruction of his fellow man, and any other historical figure that might not be approved of by some part of our society.

What we have in the making here is a violation of the right to freedom of speech and I think everyone should cool off and start looking at situations like this with some objectivity.

MICHAEL GOODWIN

Thousand Oaks