Mail Call: A Look at the Nation We Have Become

'Who We Are Now': Readers responding to our Jan. 26 cover story praised what they believe is Barack Obama's ability to bridge cultural divides. "He excites us with his universal appeal," one wrote, while another added that because Obama "lived abroad and went to school with children from societies different from his own," he will have a better understanding of diverse cultures. But a few readers admitted to feeling a little Obama fatigue. Remarked one, "Nothing against our new president, but don't you think it's time to find a new subject for your cover?"

The Citizens of a New America
I have spent more than 30 years studying the experience of racial minorities in the United States. I went from the barrios of Compton, Calif., to schools like Princeton and Columbia, and I am now a doctoral candidate at the University of Texas. Crossing such different spaces has engaged my curiosity and reflexivity. In "Who We Are Now" (Jan. 26), people of color come across as an intersection between Hurricane Katrina and Ellis Island—we are historically framed as a demographic hurricane and we are periodically framed as part of the "new America." Diversity is new? In my experience, I can tell you that in many ways, we in the United States have always been this way. Racial diversity is part of our story. After being in Washington for the inauguration and reading the local papers, I thought, there is something so complex and long about our story that is often missed by well-meaning folk in the cosmopolitan bubbles of New York and Washington. I am your neighbor. My uncle helped build some of the roads you drive on. My great-grandfather wrote poetry during the late 1800s after a long day of work in the Salinas, Calif., area. Barack Obama just provided a window through which to see ourselves again.
Juan F. Carrillo
Austin, Texas

From the perspective of a 66-year-old white man, what happened on Tuesday, Jan. 20, is truly astounding. I grew up in the highly segregated and bigoted central Texas of the 1940s, '50s and '60s. As a matter of course, we used all of the hateful racial epithets or, when we were being nice, substituted "Negroes" or "colored people" for them. We told mean racial jokes and committed horrible acts toward black people. I could not imagine using a toilet or drinking from a fountain after a black person because we thought they carried diseases. My hometown was totally segregated, and no black person would dare come to your front door, go to a white restaurant or fail to step off the sidewalk to let you pass. We did not hate blacks; we just did not think of them as real people with real feelings. On Nov. 4, without giving it a thought, I voted for a black man for president. Race—for or against—had nothing to do with my vote. It was not an issue, and only after the election did the significance become clear to me. We have overcome fear and hatred, and I am looking toward the future with optimism.
John Edens
Phoenix, Ariz.

Where Lincoln Really Slept
One always learns something while reading Christopher Hitchens, but to see in his Jan. 19 article ("The Man Who Made Us Whole") that Abe Lincoln "never really lived" in a log cabin sent me back to the books for a triple check. The structure in southern Indiana where Lincoln spent his 14 formative years was, by every contemporary account, including Honest Abe's own, a "log cabin." This year's bicentennial would be a great time for Hitchens and all Lincoln admirers to come to the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial and see where he grew up for themselves.
Mitch Daniels
Governor of Indiana
Indianapolis, Ind.

Corrections
In our Jan. 26 graphic "Welcome to Washington, Mr. President," we wrote that George Washington's 1789 transition, at 110 days, was the "longest on the books." Instead, we should have said that his April 30 inauguration was the latest on record; until 1937, most transitions were roughly as long as Washington's.

In "Streets of 'GOMORRAH' " (Dec. 22, 2008), one of the photos was miscaptioned. The right-hand picture was not a still from "Gomorrah"; it was taken in one of the Naples slums where the film was set.