To the editor:
As a grade-schooler in 1958, during the Cold War, after giving a report on my family’s story of emigrating from Russia, I was accosted by an older classmate at recess.
Finger in my face, he demanded, “Are you a pinko-commie?” I didn’t know what that was, but I knew it wasn’t a good thing.
As an adult, I’ve learned that my family’s heritage didn’t make me a Communist, any more than caring about community or working to build common cause for the common good makes me a Communist. Or a socialist. Or a Marxist. Or a radical leftist.
These labels aren’t meant to be descriptive; they serve one purpose only: to scare, to intimidate, to bully. Same as they did in 1958. No doubt my classmate was just parroting the adults in his life.
Luckily, the adults in my life helped me understand the fear behind the labeling.
Jean Reed Bahle Suttons Bay
