To the editor:

The attitude and anger of Ms. Gitten’s letter (Jan. 11) in my opinion, is part and parcel of why America is so deeply divided. Tell me, Ms. Gitten, what led you to believe that I am “a person of the opposing side?”

Perhaps it was that I pointed that out that the goals of the KKK were supported for nearly 100 years by the Democrat Party.

Nowhere in your letter do you disagree with the primary focus of my Jan. 2 Independent op-ed that Minnesota and Southwestern Minnesota never embraced the KKK. Nowhere in your letter do you disagree with the fact that Minnesota’s History has never been defined by the evil that was and is the KKK. Nowhere in your comments, do you dispute the history of compassion for others that defines southwest Minnesota.

I agree with Ms. Gittens when she says, “history is not a club to wield against enemies.” I assure you that I have no enemies. I am, however, very concerned about the motives of those who attempt to revise or destroy our history, something I too have always seen as sacred.

Our past is imperfect, but America, our freedoms, and our ideals will continue to make the United States the envy of the world. My wife, Muriel, and I have found our “Prairie Paradise” here with the “real people” of rural Minnesota.

I hope Ms. Gittens finds her paradise.

John Coulter

Tracy

— John Coulter is a retired history teacher charter graduate of southwest Minnesota State College