I’m proud that the Minnesota Star Tribune printed my letter to the editor this week. I’m two for two getting my writing into one of the country’s top newspapers.

The first was “Misogyny Amplified,” a column that appeared following the 2024 presidential election.

What could I do about the horrendous political chaos sickening so many of us? I’m not going to knock on doors, send money, or make phone calls for the Democratic Party. None of it does any good in kicking old white men off their political pedestals.

I don’t know if my writing does any good. I don’t know that it doesn’t.

So I’ll keep at it. Here’s my letter:

0728TO THE EDITOR:

In this time of political tumult and reduced funding, education will suffer more than it has in recent years. 

What the world needs is reliance on humanity. Respectful interactions between people of all ages who hold different points of view. That’s why I concur with “Teaching: Oh, the humanity, part 2” by retired teacher Dick Schwartz (MN Star Tribune, July 27, 2025).

As a former high school teacher, it’s not so much that students met “famous” people, it’s that someone such as former Strib opinion columnist Katherine Kersten listened to them. That she recognized their ability to think for themselves, and I would add, to ask smart questions.

In the 1990s, I taught at Mt. Desert Island High School in Maine. I took students for an annual “Intellectually Challenging Weekend” to Boston. Lucky me, my mentor was the late BU historian, Howard Zinn (author of “A People’s History of the United States”). He met with us at a private seminar at the Holiday Inn near his home. 

One year a student asked, “Is it really you?” 

Zinn replied, “Oh comon, I’m just an old Jewish grandfather.” They jumped in, framing astute questions for the “famous” professor, a caring human being. Twenty teenagers hugged Zinn when we left.

This summer, I bumped into a former student in Maine. “I’ll never forget our seminar with Howard Zinn,” he said. “That was a life-changing experience.”

What did our current incurious president say after winning the 2016 Nevada primary? 

“I prefer the uneducated.”