Dear Nick:

I appreciate your utmost interest in my columns. I was flattered by your attempt to contradict my views; however, I believe you did not use your analytical skills to their full capacity in order to fully comprehend what I was trying to argue.

The points you made in your “piece of writing” are slightly flawed, which I expect from someone who willingly admitted that he “tends to write mindless drivel and ramblings” about nothing to pass the time.

Just to make it clear for someone of your intellectual subpar standard, my main point of the column was that in order to live in a better nation, we should become more responsible citizens and not waste the chance that America has given us, and you seem to make a fine example of not fully utilizing such opportunities.

I understand you are yet another babied liberal American who is not optimistic about his own country. I am sure you have witnessed atrocities all over the world from the media that you claim to be a part of, but have you ever experienced it? You don’t seem to be a person who lived in what they call a “second-world country.” I did. And I grew up there. And my background gives me a right to argue such radical opinions, unlike you, who always had his basic rights handed to him.

Take into consideration the fact that I was born in the Soviet Union, where they not only “systematically removed” people of different nationalities who didn’t want to become a part of the “Monster” (the Ukrainian genocide of 1932-1933, where at least 2.6 million Ukrainians were starved to death), but also where they would imprison you for years for publishing such an anti-patriotic opinion as yours.

If you may recall from one of my columns, my greatest appreciation for American history is that we are given the perfect framework to build this nation as a country, as a whole and as one; the historical events that you have listed are no doubt horrific, but they are mistakes of individualistic groups and not of the nation as a whole.

What I tried to explain in my column is that we as citizens are responsible for coming together to help prevent the incidents you listed in your column. It is our duty. It depends on our commitment and loyalty.

“This nationalist thinking helps mold the target demographic for a convenient, perfectly packaged version of American history.” You claimed to read columns of your fellow writers; therefore, you should be the one to know I’m one of the very few people who argues the misinterpretation of American history (read “Black history from a white girl’s perspective”).

I never said this country was perfect; I never said it was an angel. However, this country can and will be better if we as a nation take more time to become better citizens.

You know how the saying goes, “If you don’t love yourself, who will then?” If we Americans disrespect our country and our history, like you do, we should not expect to be respected in the world. In the end of your column, you advised everyone, as well as me, “to keep on doing, not asking, not thinking.” Well, I will recommend you to reread my column yet again so people like yourself will start contributing to the development of America. Or you just might as well keep writing mindless drivel and ramblings.

Anastasia Spytsya is a senior Russian translation major and political science minor and columnist for the Daily Kent Stater. Contact her at [email protected].