In one classroom at Spring-Ford High School, the teacher has decorated with bumper stickers and posters proclaiming a desire for world peace. Admirable, no doubt. Among the paraphernalia is a very prominent poster of Che Guevara. This may not be a surprise to those who've seen his image plastered everywhere from T-shirts at the mall to Obama campaign headquarters but we need to look at who Guevara was and what he stood for before we hold him up as an example for our children.

According to an article by Jay Nordlinger in the National Review (Dec. 31, 2004), the flourishing Guevara marketers have been making millions while offending Cuban Americans and anyone who is "decent and aware." So who was Che Guevara?

"He was an Argentinian revolutionary who served as Castro's primary thug. He was especially infamous for presiding over summary executions at La Cabana, the fortress that was his abattoir. He liked to administer the coup de grace, the bullet to the back of the neck. And he loved to parade people past El Paredon, the reddened wall against which so many innocents were killed. Furthermore, he established the labor-camp system in which countless citizens — dissidents, democrats, artists, homosexuals — would suffer and die."

As Paul Berman summed up recently in Slate, "Che was an enemy of freedom, and yet he has been erected into a symbol of freedom. He helped establish an unjust social system in Cuba and has been erected into a symbol of social justice. He stood for the ancient rigidities of Latin-American thought, in a Marxist-Leninist version, and he has been celebrated as a freethinker and a rebel."

Those who know, or care about, the truth concerning Guevara are often tempted to despair. The Web site of our own National Institutes of Health describes him this way: "an 'Argentine physician and freedom fighter." Guevara was a physician roughly like Mrs. Ceausescu was a chemist. As for freedom fighter ... again, the temptation to despair is great."

As Mr. Nordling points out, "Imagine being (a Cuban American) and seeing celebratory images of Guevara all around you. Imagine — even further — being the son or daughter of someone whom Guevara personally executed. There are such people in the United States. Or imagine further yet  being a Cuban political prisoner, and knowing that masses in free countries were wearing Che on their chests."

"If you talk to Cuban Americans about how they feel, they will first mention Hitler and the Nazis: No one would sell or sport items celebrating those beasts; what's the difference, other than scale?"

The Spring-Ford district touts a slogan of "Bully free is the way to be." We agree. We need to stop heralding violent criminals as heroes of freedom. We need to educate our children in an environment where the truth matters.

WAYNE HOUCK

Collegeville