John Wayne

* Re “John Wayne Life-Size Cutout Gets Firefighter in Flap With Boss,” Dec. 7.

Poor Marion Morrison, a.k.a. John Wayne. He was as mediocre a social commentator as he was an actor. But his notorious comments, quoted from his 1971 Playboy interview, should be viewed in proper context. His abysmal choice of phrases such as “white supremacy” and “irresponsible” blacks reflect the man’s complete lack of couth. But couth is not truth.

In fairness, in 1971 we were just beginning to effectively crawl out from under the slimy rock of segregated schools. In many parts of our country, particularly the South and some northern inner cities, blacks had received substandard educations for a century. Haphazardly turning vital functions over to undereducated people simply because they were black would, indeed, have been irresponsible. Morrison may not have meant that blacks could never be responsible. So the comment can be seen as an indictment of the system up till that time.

The comments about American Indians, on the other hand, are completely disgusting and indefensible. The Indians were in our way? They were defending their land against ruthless invaders! By Morrison’s sublime standards, the Japanese were fully correct and justified in attacking us at Pearl Harbor. After all, we were in the way of their dreams of conquest, too.

TOM BRAUN

Littlerock