Editor:

In response to Christian Hatley's letter, "Racist U.S.," on March 4, I must register my disgust with his pessimistic attitude.

Mr. Hatley, you say that "this country is founded on hatred, pure and simple." I don't seem to recall that my "founding" grandparents who emigrated from Sweden came to the U.S. with the intention to hate someone, but rather to escape a government that was refusing to take a stand against the atrocities of Nazi Germany before World War II.

Secondly, if you believe that no one can stop racism, you are part of the problem. Your negativism, fatality and rage are more of a problem than the racism you believe is tearing our country apart. Your employment of inflammatory profanity does nothing to resolve the problem and is in itself a dysfunctional strategy to avoid taking responsibility for helping to change the country you live in. If you believe so strongly that nothing can be done to save this country, please do what my grandparents did and move elsewhere.

By the way, Mr. Hatley, my grandparents' house was also "full of dinner parties, friendly debates and household cooking." Were they politicians with "money coming out of their pockets," as you suggested? No, they were poor, overburdened common workers involved in their community, who worked with one another to overcome their difficulties, rather than feeling someone should hand them the solution and raging like a dysfunctional child if they didn't get it.

Jon R. Ellstrom
french junior