A few weeks ago, The Daily Collegian printed a letter that complained about political correctness. The letter began by stating that the current generation could not be held entirely responsible for past wrongs and finished by reminding the columnist that he, too, was a white guy and I suppose, guilty by proxy.

First, the fact that some of the European settlers of North America committed atrocities is NOT in doubt. It's interesting, and more than a little disturbing, that we never seem to hear of the deeds of people like Dr. Livingstone, an Englishman who gave his life fighting to eradicate slavery in Africa.

Nor, in the current "revisionist history" climate do we run across the tens of thousands of Evil White Guys who were killed fighting for the North in the Civil War -- many of them ardent abolitionists, including two of my ancestors.

The points are these: one, the wrongs committed by European-Americans are not remotely the whole picture, and two, even if they were, so what? Even if the entire American white population had at one time lived for nothing save the sadistic glee of "oppressing" others, that was then and this is now.

But a question arises: which approach is more productive, to continually inflame succeeding generations with the memory of past or present wrongs, or to acknowledge they did and do indeed occur and then seek reconciliation and mutually beneficial solutions?

To hear the PC crowd talk, one would think the only time racism or any crime ever occurred in the history of mankind was when it was perpetrated by white men (never women, of course, forever victims in feminist theology) in North America. Again history's witness is plainly against such baseless, vacant philosophy.

The same white race that produced Hitler also produced Frank Lloyd Wright, DaVinci and Lincoln. The black race can count George Washington Carver, Sojourner Truth and Martin Luther King among its members, but also Idi Amin, warlord Aidid and the various men who hacked to death a white female American in South Africa a few months ago. The Japanese have developed a vital, modern culture replete with numerous beneficial technological advances; 50 years ago, they gave the world Pearl Harbor, the Bataan Death March and the rape of Manchuria.

Give us a break. Perpetual victimhood and finger-pointing are not only unbeneficial, they are demeaning to the very people who were and are suffering. I've yet to meet one person among the alleged victim classes who wanted my pity or condescension. Let's pursue reconciliation, personal responsibility and mutual respect, not repackaged racism and gender bias.