Most of my time on the job is spent editing letters and columns, reading proofs, writing, and combing through submissions. I'll admit I don't always answer my correspondence in a timely manner, but there are some people I always look forward to hearing from.

One of those is a gentleman from White Hall I frequently disagree with, but we often find a lot to agree on, and I almost dare say we have become friends of a sort. We often discuss history, human nature and other topics, and maintain civility at all times. In the current atmosphere, that's saying a lot.

A couple of weeks ago he wrote in respect to my mention of Manifest Destiny and other ills perpetrated in the past with the imprimatur of our nation's government, noting he'd recently read "A People's History of The United States" by Howard Zinn.

"In it, he starts off with excoriating the early European explorers for decimating indigenous populations by introducing diseases they had no immunity for, as well as much outright killing. He eventually gets around to the American Indians and their fate. What he doesn't do is propose any manner in which the exploration and settling of the American West might have been done differently, again just excoriates the people who did the exploring and settling (and the government which supported it).

"I have had this discussion with so many people who, like me, have........

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