Gingrich on Youth, Future

Re “We’ve Got to Stop Cheating Our Children,” Commentary, July 31:

By far the most astounding statement that Speaker Newt Gingrich makes is that America is desperately in need of a so-called “opportunity society . . . free of bureaucracy and regulations,” as if that were a new idea.

This country had just such a society at the close of the last century. It is usually referred to as the Age of the Robber Barons. The American marketplace was then an incredibly dangerous place for consumers, with no guarantee that meat was untainted, medicine more than a concoction of alcohol and cocaine and that your bank was anywhere close to solvent. There was opportunity all right, opportunity for a few greedy men to make millions and millions of dollars with no one looking over their shoulders to make sure their products were safe and that they took some responsibility for the working conditions of the men, women and children who worked 12 to 16 hours a day when there was no such thing as a minimum wage.

The application of restraints on business and the underpinnings of a humane society that cares for at least the barest essentials for our citizens was the creation of a cluster of Conservative Republicans spearheaded by a wild-eyed radical named Teddy Roosevelt at the beginning of this century.

LORIA J. RICHARDS

Simi Valley

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* Gingrich writes about “the past 30 years” as if the Republican Party had been locked in the cellar the entire time. Notably omitted from this artist’s rendering of history is the 12-year Reagan-Bush era--one that saw the largest wealth transfer in U.S. history, the evisceration of labor unions, the defunding of a host of social programs, and the creation of a multibillion-dollar hemorrhage in U.S. tax revenues by deregulating financial institutions. Now Gingrich would have the middle class believe it was the “liberal elite” who pulled the rug out from under them.

Think back to the ‘60s, Mr. Gingrich. It was a government program that funded that moon landing you recall so wistfully; it was the War on Poverty that gave the U.S. the largest middle class in its history. It wasn’t until the ‘80s that greed overcame our collective vision of prosperity and things took a turn for the nasty. Remember now? As a historian old enough to recall these events firsthand, you of all people should know better.

MARGARET ECHEVARRIA

El Segundo

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* What hypocrisy! Gingrich thumping his chest (while promoting his new book) with entreaties to stop “cheating our children” and “allowing our schools to decay.” Can this be the same politician who is systematically demolishing just about every federal program that serves children or promotes education or culture?

Education is the key to breaking the cycles of poverty and crime, yet Gingrich and his fellow ideologues in (and out) of Congress are doing their best to dismantle all federal programs that promote scholarship, culture and the arts.

ANNE FARRELL

Del Mar

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* Gingrich’s article about the visionaries of the future and how we should try to bring back extinct species like the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park is quite interesting (Aug. 2). With his and the Republicans’ views on business and the environment it seems a perfect match. First the Republicans reduce the restrictions for businesses on the environment and kill off whatever species gets in the way of progress. Then, invent a whole new industry that would employ thousands of people to bring the species that were killed back again. Wow, what a concept!

Now, I really think that Newt’s interest in bringing back the dinosaurs is due to all the money he has taken from the NRA. He feels he should give them something to shoot at!

CHRISTOPHER NEAL

Rancho Santa Margarita

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* Gingrich attacks a position that very few advocates of bilingual education hold, that English language competence is not necessary (“Literacy Is the Coin of the Realm,” Aug. 4). The most important goal of bilingual education is the acquisition of English literacy, and a great deal of research shows that students in well-designed bilingual programs acquire English as well, and usually better than students in all-English programs. Gingrich’s claim that “bilingual education slows down and confuses people” is thus not true. I support bilingual education because it is very good for English literacy development.

STEPHEN KRASHEN

School of Education, USC

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* I can’t believe I’m actually agreeing with Gingrich, but English literacy goes beyond politics. The bilingual education program that is currently being implemented in the Los Angeles Unified School District is crippling the majority of immigrant children. Most of the students in my new fifth/sixth grade class cannot write a simple sentence or understand a simple math word problem. The answer is learning English as soon as possible.

ELAINE J. FRANKLIN

Burbank