I’d like to reply to those who responded to my Nov. 6 letter.

As expected, there were opinions. Some were courteous and polite while some a little more impassioned for their own enigmatic reasons.

But it’s the private e-mails of insults and name-calling from one which prompted this follow-up from me.

Let me first make it known I have, on many occasions, volunteered for charitable events with the Rotary clubs of both Moorpark and Simi Valley.

I have always found it very inspiring to see what these men and women do for their communities and have always been proud to be a part of it. I have never indicated Rotary kept any of the money raised, as one responder would have you believe.

My letter was not, nor was it ever intended to be, an attack on the Rotary as an organization.

I respect what they represent and have witnessed their efforts firsthand. I once spoke at the Moorpark Rotary meeting on safety and self-preservation.

I have instructed members of the Rotary of Moorpark in private lessons of self-defense as well as worked side by side with the Simi chapter. In fact, I was asked, on more than one occasion, to join the Rotary but could not for reasons irrelevant to this matter.

If the Kiwanis or the American Legion or even the Girl Scouts had presented this event, I would have still protested. I was protesting the idea, not the organization. I will forever continue to do so.

Reading the responses, as expected, some of you exploited education of history in your defense. To that I ask you, how then do we teach our children about the dangers of street gangs that infect our schools and neighborhoods?

Shall we set them up on a wall, give them some popcorn and let them watch a gang fight? And what of the education to the dangers of drugs? Perhaps a field trip to a crack house? I think not.

So then why bring your children to learn about the travesty of war, to watch men reenact bloody battles?

I do not believe, as Mr. Nohrenberg puts it, that it’s a good lesson learned when “the smell of gunpowder singes your nostrils.”

Does saying you hate war make you unpatriotic? No. But you sure will discover how easily words can start a war.
Peter Carrube
Simi Valley