Survivalists

“Survivalists Certain: Chaos Still Coming” (Jan. 2) portrayed Bo Gritz and his fellow-minded conspiracy theorists as rational and responsible Americans. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Gritz has trained hundreds of antigovernment zealots to fight the “new world order,” a conspiracy theory steeped in violence, racism and anti-Semitism. Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, the Montana Freemen and Branch Davidian leader David Koresh are proof of its danger to American society. Your article also failed to report that Gritz’s and Jack McLamb’s insistence that Y2K may bring chaos to the world is in their self-interest; they are trying to profit off of it by selling “survivalist” goods and services. Instead of exposing these extremists for what they are, the article offers legitimacy to those who insist that violence, hatred and open betrayal of our legal, legislative and political institutions are acceptable.

KEATH BLATT

Los Angeles