By Roman S. KoenigGuest columnist

A major seismic event has hit the opinion pages of The DailyAztec.

Better yet, make that three major seismic events — a series ofopinion pieces by columnist Christopher Bell.

Unlike most earthquakes, however, these temblors haven’t killedanyone or destroyed any property, although some of The Aztec’s letterwriters would have you think otherwise.

What these opinion pieces have done is expose a hard truth aboutthe United States that many people find hard to swallow: Like it ornot, our country has a racist past that continues to be felt in thepresent, and certainly into the future.

Using these letters to the editor as a Richter Scale of truth,Bell’s columns rate a 10.

The old saying goes, “The truth shall set you free.” Likewise, thetruth can also set some people off.

Bell made several key points that would make sense to any awareU.S. citizen:

“This country was founded deeply on racism.”

“Most white people … still benefit from the racist practices ofthe past.”

“Even on a level playing field, there are teams that just can’tmeasure up because of circumstances beyond their control.”

“White privilege is the reason the U.S. does not and cannot ever,ever want to attain equality.”

Provocative as these statements may be, they are rooted inhistorical fact. Those who deny this history are the ones who go onthe attack like rabid dogs because they cannot support theirarguments with fact or logic. Instead, they spit forth the kind ofnonsense found in the letters section (“Privileged pool man,” Nov.16, The Daily Aztec):

“I am a white guy who does not see all this privilege that I amsupposed to be getting,” he writes.

To this point I say that the writer couldn’t even enjoy theprivilege of a warm California sun were it not for the sinister sideof our history.

The fact that racism played a strong role in the founding of thiscountry is undeniable. Case in point: the Monroe Doctrine, orManifest Destiny.

For a mix of political, religious and racist reasons, the UnitedStates owes its size to this policy, in which the U.S. governmentallowed the destruction of Native American cultures in a bid tosecure domination of the North American continent.

Manifest Destiny — which expanded the United States west –carried with it the belief that an Anglo nation was preordained to”civilize” the savages under its rule of law, imposing its politicaland economic will over the non-Anglo population.

Like it or not, so-called white privilege is an institution in theUnited States, from slavery in the old South to the fight for civilrights in the 1960s, to the present day. The letter’s author asks,”Do you think I can walk into a job interview, and as soon as theysee I am white, get the job?” The answer is yes.

National news programs have provided eye-opening reports about thedisparity in treatment between white and African-American job-seekersand apartment renters. In the undercover reports, African-Americansubjects of equal or better qualification were turned down for jobsand homes in favor of their white counterparts.

Another letter (“Faulty reasoning,” Nov. 11, The Daily Aztec),counters Bell’s arguments, stating, “The United States … has, withgreat effort, tried to put the countries of the world on a more equalplaying field.”

He further writes, “Without the United States of America, dozensof countries would be worse off economically, politically, and fearconstant wars and possible hostile takeovers from other countries.”

Would these grateful nations include Chile and Nicaragua? Howabout Rwanda, where the Clinton administration turned a blind eye togenocide, yet was willing to battle Slobodan Milosevic over ethniccleansing in Kosovo?

In Nicaragua, the Reagan administration backed the Contras, relicsof the Somoza communist dictatorship. In Chile, the United Statesbacked General Augusto Pinochet, who staged a coup to usurp the willof the Chilean people, who peacefully elected a socialist president.

The fact of the matter is that we were the aggressor, not thesavior. A nation that so proudly supports “free speech” supportedgovernments that squelched it, and went far beyond that. This ishardly an equal playing field.

Part of being a patriot is the ability to see both what’s rightand wrong with our country. The United States is not a StepfordNation, perfect and idyllic. It has a side to its past that must bereckoned with. It has issues that must be addressed head-on andcandidly to make this nation an even better place.

Yes, I am white. Yes, I agree with Christopher Bell. And this wasone series of earthquakes I enjoyed riding out.

This column is the opinion of the columnist and not The DailyAztec.