I WAS singularly unimpressed by Miles J. Unger's Op-ed ("Democracy: The lessons of history," July 19). He demonstrates how easy it is to swipe at the United States by choosing among historical facts and contemporary observations to confirm his grand judgment that we are making a mess of it.
My grand judgment is that the country has had an extraordinary positive historical record, because we have faced up to so many of our defects on a larger geographic scale and with a larger population drawn from more races, cultures, religions and places than the Athenians or Florentines probably could count.
How many other countries have sent their sons far away to fight and die to defeat attacks bent on tyranny and destruction, as we did to Europe and the Pacific, and then gone home?
Yes, we owe thanks to the Athenians and Florentines for historical roots and some do's and don'ts, but their democracies pale against ours, as a player piano pales against CDs in making music at home.
Consider Milton Friedman's still-valid observation that the "huddled masses" around the world, who want to come here, are telling us something.
Do we need to work on our continuing problems? Of course. But listen, also, to the message of all that banging on our doors to gain entry. It's the freedom and opportunity, stupid.
STEPHEN N. MILLER
Waban
