While as a retired teacher, I strongly support contests such as the Rudyard Kipling Young Writers Awards, I must object to the uncritical treatment of the man for whom this award was named, Rudyard Kipling.
I feel that to give our young students, who in Windham County are overwhelmingly white, the sort of uncritical praise of Kipling that was reflected in the article is a disservice to their education and to the great need to raise the consciousness of all of us who are white regarding the history of racism and the imperialism that it was used to justify.
Unfortunately, Kipling was one of the most important purveyors of this racism, being the author of one of the most famous racist lines in all of colonial history, “the White Man's burden” to conquer and, in the language of his era, “civilize” the rest of the people of the world.
Anyone who doubts his ideology and perspective need only consult his books, such as Just So Stories and The Jungle Book.
In all the news coverage, editorials, and letters about the recent Co-op shooting, one aspect has never been mentioned. Nationally, the rate of incidences of workplace violence has been increasing. At the same time, workers have been losing health and retirement benefits, losing union protection, and being pressured to...