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To The Editor:

I don’t know what a “white democracy” is and I don’t know what an “interracial democracy” is. I do know what a democracy is and what an interracial society is. And in the U.S., we are fortunate to have both — so long as our democracy survives.

Our country exists in a relatively short span of time in history, and in that time we have worked and resolved many of our problems, and continue to do so, while other countries are still trying to figure it out. It is what makes us great, and why we are envied by others. We have warts in our history, and still do. But we work daily trying to fix them. There is no utopia. America is not perfect and never will be. But what makes us great is our willingness to recognize our flaws, and our ability to put them to rest peacefully.

As for being lucky that the North won a war that has left scars on our heritage — I have no idea why anyone would laud such a travesty. That war pitted brother against brother and father against son, and while it was fought, did not involve anything that could even possibly resemble “luck.” Instead, it should be remembered for what it was — a horrific time in our history that left sickness, death, and destruction, and quite frankly while one side surrendered, should have left both sides with a memory that would prevent anything like it from happening again. 

Peter Kapuscinski

Dillwyn

Editor’s Note — Mr. Kapuscinski is responding to a letter from Joe Grace headlined “Thank God the South lost the Civil War” in the Friday, Nov. 27, edition of The Farmville Herald.