Old West revisited

I had a problem with Charles Solomon’s comment about “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron” in his article about the competition for the best animated film Oscar (“Contest Could Color Future of Animation,” Jan. 8): “However, the animation was strikingly beautiful, and its vision of a politically correct American West (Native Americans as the good guys) may appeal to academy voters.”

“Politically correct” means dumbing down historical events or ethnic identifications to make the dominant group appear culturally sensitive. In this case, it is the truth that the Native Americans were the “good guys.” If you define as “bad” fighting back after you’re forced into slavery under Columbus, systematically slaughtered by Cortez and our own government, and forced into reservations and boarding schools where they would do everything they could to get rid of your cultural identity, then I would like to be informed what is “good.”

An animated film that meets the definition of “politically correct” would be “Pocahontas,” since it changed the decimation of a culture into a watered-down love story.

Daniel Zelter

West Hollywood