To the Editor:
The two Letters to the Editor in your Jan. 26 edition which objected to the renaming of Alexandria streets are particularly objectionable. Both letters, which seem to be tone-deaf and insensitive to the larger community around them, conveniently minimize the fact that the streets
in question honor individuals who led the fight AGAINST the United States in a war – the country’s deadliest – whose main purpose was to perpetuate the assumption that it is legally or morally defensible to support the enslavement of other human beings. This should be offensive
to everyone, regardless of color. And no, these names are not just “generic” family names, they SPECIFICALLY refer to the leaders of that other country and its war against the United States. I wonder if the writers of those letters would feel that streets named Hitler, Mussolini, Tse Tung, Chi Minh, etc. would be okay with them.
Stephen Leeds
Alexandria