Letters: Lynching, Heckling, Evolution
Debbie Elliott reads from recent listener e-mail. Comments include horror at the graphic nature of a report on a 1916 lynching, annoyance at those who heckled Sen. John McCain at a commencement ceremony. There's also a question: evolution or devolution?
DEBBIE ELLIOTT, host:
This is ALL THING CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Debbie Elliott.
Time now for your comments. Ruth Shimp(ph) of Ruston, Louisiana objected to our story about a 1916 lynching in Waco, Texas. She wrote, This story contained more finely detailed, murderous horror than I can tolerate, even in a book. She turned her radio off.
As a follow-up to that story, the McLennan County Commission has unanimously approved a resolution condemning lynchings and the racial violence of the past.
On Robert Smith's report on the commencement at New School University, many students there heckled the speaker, Republican Senator John McCain. Randy Minnick(ph) of Porterville, California, writes, Their infantile behavior was sourly typical of liberals who are anti everything good, decent, truthful and traditional.
Charles St. Onge(ph) took issue with yesterday's piece on fish that are downsizing due to over-fishing. St. Onge argues that's not evolution but devolution. NPR science correspondent David Malakoff responds that in fact a biologist would say that evolution by natural selection leads in no particular direction.
If you hear anything fishy, please write to us. Go to our website, npr.org, click on Contact Us, and select WEEKEND ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. Please include a phone number, tell us where you live, and how to pronounce your name.
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