DN letters: Flowers' criticism of college protesters is mean-spirited

IN HER COLUMN "Elite Kids, Social Injustice Don't Mix," Christine Flowers insulted and criticized Bryn Mawr students for taking part in a protest against racist police behaviors and for boycotting a class to express sympathy for immigrants who fear deportation by the incoming Trump administration.

Flowers mocked these students as "precious little pop tarts" and "tots." Her reason for deriding these students was that they come from rich families and could not possibly "know anything about the plight of immigrants." She concluded by stating "thinking that missing a few classes will make the world safe for immigrants is laughable."

These young adults should be applauded for caring enough to take action to try to help others. I didn't realize that being from a wealthy family curtails the right to protest for the less fortunate.

As for what these students know about immigrants, it's possible some of them are immigrants or have immigrant parents.

Flowers didn't bother with real journalism by interviewing any of the students. She simply lumped them all together without knowing a thing about them and sneered at their efforts.

I also didn't realize that not being part of a group of people prohibits others from taking part in a discussion about and expressing solidarity with them. Flowers constantly derides women who choose to have an abortion - how could she possibly "know anything about the plight" of these women unless she'd been in that situation herself?

I'll take the pop tarts over the mean-spirited hypocrite.

Dave Lipshutz

Voorhees, N.J.

I fully support President-elect Donald Trump's desire to have flag burning banned. No. 1, there are plenty of other ways to express one's disapproval of something the government is doing (though probably not as spotlight getting, which I believe is the sole purpose of it).

Second, imagine if I said, "To express my disapproval of the terrorist group ISIS, I am going to burn a copy of the Quran," then actually did it. I may not get arrested for it in this country, but I'm sure you could imagine the incessant outrage and cries for some kind of legal action. At the very least, I would be demonized as anti-Muslim, yet I bet those same people don't think it anti-American to burn an American flag.

Bernard Coombs

Philadelphia

---

I saw the front page about Trump wanting to punish flag burners, and I want to say that I'm all for it. What about those who cut up, slash it, pull down the flag? My father served in the Navy in 1942-1946 and took part in Normandy Beach invasion on June 6, 1944, by transporting the troops to the beach while .50-caliber guns fired over his head. I put up the flag for my dad, as well as to honor all servicemen who died or were wounded but a neighbor pulled our flag down six times.

Robert F. Schaffer

Philadelphia

Will Bunch's column, "Castro's Mixed Legacy," uses two reasons to possibly soften Castro's atrocities against humanity. The first is medical, claiming there are more than enough doctors. The second is the claim of a 100 percent literacy rate and free education. Only a liberal press would accept as true claims made by a dictator who murders citizins who disagree with him. Why would you believe these claims?

Those of us in the free world have no numbers on those who died at his hands, how many are starving or pictures of their living conditions - but Bunch would like me to think medical and education claims are true, and maybe that Castro wasn't such a bad guy, because Castro tells us he isn't.

Sheila Dunnells Mangiaracina

Wayne, Pa.