Bad old days
Letter-writer Valerie Mellerop (3/28/08) says she is angry every day about the '60s protests and angry at a State Street marker that refers to the protests "turning violent."
I took part in the Dow protests in 1967, and in a large number of those that followed. Many who took part in them did remain peaceful.
Nevertheless, most of us came to joke how Struck & Irwin must be cleaning up on the war since their trucks with replacement glass often lined State Street after each night's rage against the machine. And believe me, it was not the "unsheathed nightsticks" of the police that were breaking all the windows of those masters of war, the State Street shop owners.
I also recall the return of Karlton Armstrong and David Fine to Madison and running into them occasionally at parties. Never once did I see anyone take them to task for their murderous violence. Quite the contrary, they were celebrities treated with adoring care.
The fact is, violence was a central component of the antiwar movement from a very early point on, however pacifist or passive-aggressive were some of its participants. The thrill of it all was based on that ever-present possibility, romanticized by all too many on the left, that violence was a cleansing agent needed to purify evil America.
I do not completely renounce my part in all that. The antiwar movement had its justifications. Nevertheless, my anger, Valerie, is at the seductive appeal of the movement's righteous indignation and its sheer hate of our nation.
Jonathan Burack, Stoughton
Greenbush lives
Thanks for Esty Dinur's article "Remembering the 'Bush" (3/21/08). She got it right. Greenbush is not a story about the past, but a story about a present-day community remembering the past.
About 300 people attended the recent Second Annual Greenbush Day celebration. The success of this event was largely due to the generous support of Meriter Hospital, St. Mary's Hospital, the Italian Workmen's Club, the Italian-American Women's Club and the in-kind support of the University of Wisconsin, Bayview Foundation and other neighborhood organizations.
The performers, exhibitors and audience members demonstrated just how dynamic Greenbush remains.
Mark Wagler
Kudos to Esty Dinur. I have lived here most of my life, and I never did understand how the neighborhood came about.
I lived on Vilas Avenue and attended Girl Scout meetings at Neighborhood House during 1945-46. Neighborhood House was not on Park Street, as you reported, but on West Washington Avenue.
Again, thanks for such a good story.
Nancy Kazynski
I am confused as to why there was no mention of Catherine Tripalin Murray's three cookbooks about the Greenbush neighborhood. Murray's books put the old neighborhood back on the map. Because of her passion and writing, Greenbush will live forever.
To mention Antonio Testolin's Greenbush Memorial and not a single word about Murray's accomplishments is a travesty.
Bette Brickson
Outrageous
In "Making Them Pay" (2/22/08) you reported that Capt. Jeff Teuscher of the Dane County Sheriff's Department said that "being careful" of the taxpayers money was the reason for the outrageous service charge for posting bond with a credit card.
Like the scandalous fees charged prisoners for telephone calls, this is another example of excessive charges being passed on to those who cannot defend themselves from such fees.
Daniel (Jim) Guilfoil, Monona
