COUNTERPUNCH LETTERS : The West Really Was Wild

I would like to say that I enjoyed Fred Brooks’ article on his highly accomplished and generally nonviolent family (“Real Heroes of the West,” Counterpunch, April 17). However, violence was a way of life during the late 1800s. It was society, not Hollywood, that made heroes out of Jesse James, Billy the Kid, Doc Holiday and countless other outlaws and gunfighters. My family dates back to the 1800s like Brooks’. But I hear stories that my 96-year-old grandmother tells me about the violence and the gunfights she has seen as late as 1915.

If there is one thing that makes our country stand out, it’s the fact that we had a Wild West. That our Westerns are as violent as they may be reflects part of our American culture.

STEVE VOCE

Huntington Beach