Can’t trust Sullivan on past, so why present?

In his most recent “Sullivan's Salvos” blog entry, Johnson County Supervisor and Democrat Rod Sullivan wrote: “The founders were all male and white, and those who were gay were quiet about it. The folks who founded the U.S. were overwhelmingly wealthy landowners, most of whom also owned slaves. They were willing to go to war over taxes. They were not too interested in upsetting that status quo.”

Sullivan is flat out wrong. Is he guilty of inept research or intentional misinformation?

The Founders weren't all male and white. They weren't overwhelmingly wealthy landowners and they didn't go to war simply over taxes. And yes, they were indeed interested in upsetting the status quo that wanted to remain aligned with England.

We had some black Founders, and that's been erased from the history books in our schools.

Of the 55 delegates to the 1787 Federal Convention (the framing of our Constitution), 12 owned or managed slaves. That's not even close to Sullivan's falsely claimed majority.

Few of the 1787 Federal Convention delegates were considered wealthy.

Sullivan is just plain wrong with his claims, so if he can't be honest about our history on Independence Day, how can we trust him on the issues of the day?

Mike Thayer

Coralville