Copyright Los Angeles Times
To the editor: Contributing writer Josh Hammer is once again engaging in conservatives’ favorite pastime: waxing nostalgic for a time that never existed (“Louvre heist is just one way Europe is surrendering its culture,” Oct. 24). He thinks European society is being destroyed by outsiders changing the culture? The irony is that those same sentiments could have been expressed at any time in the last 2,500 years. European history is the story of outsiders coming in and changing the culture. The Celts, Macedonians, Romans, Huns, Ostrogoths, Moors, Vikings, Normans, Ottomans, Rus, etc., all conquered lands and left permanent alterations. The European culture he admires wouldn’t exist without a constant influx of new blood. What’s most surprising is that any Jewish person would ever be pining for Europe’s good ol’ days. When would that have been? Mid-century Germany? The France of the Dreyfus affair? The shtetls and ghettoes of Eastern Europe? The pogroms? The Spanish Inquisition? Both Europe and America need to grow and change with the times. Accepting new ideas and people is part of that. To do otherwise is to turn into some bizarre theme-park version of national identity. Arnold Burke, Lake Forest .. To the editor: Hammer equates the decline of European personal happiness levels with a gravitational pull away from church and children. How he would know how many people are unhappy in a continent with a population of more than 700 million is quite a trick. As to his broad-brush assertion that European abandonment of church and religion are responsible for society’s ills, he fails to mention the Catholic Church’s decades-long history of covering up child sex abuse allegations. Vatican-sponsored dioceses here, there and everywhere have been found opting to protect predatory prelates instead of innocent church-going victims. Similar crimes and cover-ups have also been alleged in evangelical congregations. When people lose trust in their religious leaders and institutions, is it so surprising that they might consider doing something else on Sundays? As for Europeans surrendering their respective, distinctive cultures, he attributes that to political and economic integration and what he calls “imposed mass immigration.” He fails to acknowledge Brexit, the rise of far-right extremist political parties, increased xenophobia and vast wealth disparities as contributing factors. He conveniently overlooks what U.S. General Philip M. Breedlove, the former supreme allied commander in Europe, said in front of the House Armed Services Committee in 2016: “Together, Russia and the Assad regime are deliberately weaponizing migration in an attempt to overwhelm European structures and break European resolve.” Perhaps Hammer would concede that war-mongering dictators killing children and families has something to do with unhappiness and loss of faith.
