Once again, the Coast Guard Academy is under attack. The city of New London’s bastion of excellence and diversity, a shining star in the middle of a beleaguered city, a beautiful showcase that brings hundreds of thousands of dollars into the community every year, is under attack by a handful of malcontents who solicit complaints and take the superintendent’s words out of context to further their own agenda.

And the Day gives them a platform, “Coast Guard Academy investigating potential racial incident,” (Oct. 31). The Academy’s superintendent, Rear Adm. James Rendon, and his wife Fela have opened their hearts and their home to Academy faculty, staff, cadets, and New Londoners, only to have their hearts broken by those who have used The Day as a weapon against them.

The superintendent and his wife are of Mexican-American descent; the commandant of cadets is a female, a pilot, and married to a Coast Guard retiree, also of Hispanic descent. These are senior management officials who cherish diversity and equality.

I hope the “anonymous” complainers and people who secretly taped the superintendent’s words and fed them to an unfriendly press realize that they are contributing to tearing down one of the truly good institutions. It is disgraceful.

Michael A. Robinson, HSC, USCG (Ret)

Griswold