Arrow-right Camera
Subscribe now

Pitts is confusing

A few weeks ago, Leonard Pitts wrote that the “most consequential political divide in this country” is “between the ignorant and the informed.” I couldn’t agree more. However, he goes on to write about “an education gap between left and right.” The implication is that those with higher education are “informed” and those without it are “ignorant” or uninformed.

While he does give what he calls “empirical” evidence of the education divide, his examples that he claims make that evidence “superfluous” don’t appear to support his argument. The “knowledge-starved likes of Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin and Louie Gohmert all possess college degrees, and Bachmann and Gohmert have postgraduate law degrees. He then appears to rebut his own argument, saying that, while his mother “lacked education,” she “had a reverence for knowledge” and “was one of the wisest people I’ve ever known.”

Isn’t it possible that others who lack education may also have a “reverence for knowledge” and “value” information? I agree that “we must wrench our local school boards free of partisan political hackery,” but what does Pitts mean by “redouble our efforts to teach our children not what but how to think”?

Don Hood

Spokane Valley



Letters policy

The Spokesman-Review invites original letters on local topics of public interest. Your letter must adhere to the following rules:

  • No more than 250 words
  • We reserve the right to reject letters that are not factually correct, racist or are written with malice.
  • We cannot accept more than one letter a month from the same writer.
  • With each letter, include your daytime phone number and street address.
  • The Spokesman-Review retains the nonexclusive right to archive and re-publish any material submitted for publication.

Unfortunately, we don’t have space to publish all letters received, nor are we able to acknowledge their receipt. (Learn more.)

Submit letters using any of the following:

Our online form
Submit your letter here
Mail
Letters to the Editor
The Spokesman-Review
999 W. Riverside Ave.
Spokane, WA 99201
Fax
(509) 459-3815

Read more about how we crafted our Letters to the Editor policy