Grandpa,

Arafat is both a hero to Palestinians and a terrorist to Israelis.

I have no reason whatever to idolize Arafat or any Arab, but I respect him for earning the respect and admiration of so many Palestinians, whose cause he championed for nearly four decades.

So Palestinians are not like us and never will be. What’s wrong with that? Should every culture around the world aspire to American culture? If so, why? I take it you’re not into valuing diversity?

So some of them shoot off guns in celebration. I don’t approve of it personally because it’s not safe. But things we don’t commonly do nowadays once were common. Americans used to shoot guns in celebration also, but fortunately we’ve evolved past that as a culture.

As for Arafat being honored with the UN flag at half staff, while Reagan didn’t receive the same honor, that’s understandable from a global scale, if not with a provincial U.S. view. Arafat was the current leader of his people, and he was a hero to them for fighting (literally and figuratively) to build his nation from the ground up. Reagan was a former U.S. leader who is credited with winning the cold war by outspending the Soviets. If he had brought freedom to an oppressed U.S., or died trying to, or had even won a fighting war, then I think the world view of him at his passing would be very different.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.