Letters to the editor: School reopening, racism, Black Lives Matter and destroying statues
School board meetings
Many have written at length about the safety of schools reopening. I have just one question. Why are school boards meeting virtually if it is safe to send kids and teachers back to school?
David Day, Boise
Racism
White and scared? I’m scared to be involved with anti-racism work, from protesting to showing support online or sporting a bumper sticker. I have a choice in affiliation. Black people don’t. They can’t take off their color. When walking down the street they are targeted. Without commenting at all they are targeted online. With a police call, they face the risk of being victimized even if they are the ones who called for help. The ones charged with protecting them and the community have assumed, just by color, they are dangerous and criminal. When they send their kids to school or start drivers ed or work the graveyard shift or enjoy outdoor recreation it is a time of great anxiety rather than joy like us. They are the target of a war being waged by white supremacists in our own backyard. I must walk a mile in their shoes, being a part of the majority with the most power to fix. It comes from our group so we are obligated to correct ourselves. I must, every day until full constitutional equality is achieved for all or violate my own moral conscience knowing it is wrong. If it happens to one human, it happens to all because it is a humanity issue not political.
Shirleane Abbott, Boise
Black Lives Matter
BLM would have more support if it linked arms around Confederate statues to protect them from mob violence. The tide is running against honoring Dixie traitors, so BLM just needs to exploit that, at city halls and legislatures.
BLM needs to emphatically denounce violence against cops and property, private and public, and link arms around them, too. It does itself no good by quoting Marxists like Angela Davis. John Lewis is watching.
As long as cops are people, we will always have some bad ones. The key is having zero tolerance for bad cop behavior. No more police union labor contracts disabling mayors from firing bad cops. Let’s get away from militarizing the police. And let’s do a better job of recognizing and rewarding good cops, those who don’t resort to violence and yet are effective.
James Runsvold, Caldwell
Destroying statues
I started watching a TV series called, “The Man in the High Castle” which imagines America if the Germans and Japanese had won WW2. It’s set in the 60s. Japan controls the West Coast and the Germans control the East and Midwest with the mountain states being a neutral zone.
A recent episode showed a German filmmaker coming to America to make a propaganda film to discourage Americans from focusing on their past and to focus on the future under the Third Reich and its heroes. She filmed Aryan youth destroying statues of historic significance and proposing replacing the Statue of Liberty with a statue of an American young man who sacrificed his life to promote the Nazi ideals of purity.
The recent statue destructions around the country likewise promote erasing our past. Sure, Washington and Jefferson owned slaves, but were honorable men who were way ahead of their time. Why were statues of Jesus, Mary and Frederick Douglass likewise destroyed? Should MLK statues be destroyed for his adultery?
America is the greatest country in world history. We’re not perfect, but we are always improving. We should be celebrating those who, though imperfect, raised us above the morality of their day.
Chris Bolton, Meridian