To the Editor:
I find it to be of interest when The Star-Herald runs only one letter to the editor. Only one person in the area cares enough to voice his or her dissent? Something doesn’t seem proper with that thought given we still have the First Amendment in the USA.
A letter in a recent edition of the paper was about kneeling in sports. It was the only letter printed in a week that saw a young black man being framed for his own murder. Seems odd what is given voice in the community. May I dissent?
Players in the NFL taking a knee during the national anthem isn’t about hate for the police or the military. It is about due process of law being denied to anyone who is not white. When you see black people in the 21st Century being killed by the police as if it was still 1930s Mississippi, it is hard as a black person to remain quiet. Who remains quiet when all around you are being killed by the state (police)? Would you not do something to draw attention to the lack of justice?
Before you think to take umbrage with my remarks, remember the governor of Mississippi, Phil Bryant, has called for a boycott of Nike via the Department of Public Safety. The commissioner of the Department of Public Safety, Marshall Fisher, backed the words of the governor the very next day. They couch it in concern of hate for the police without owning the valid concerns of black citizens for their safety in the USA. When the governor of your state gives silent support for extrajudicial killings by the police, one has concerns that are valid. What does it mean for those of us traveling these dark roads in Mississippi without cell tower reception?
It is not a case of don’t break the law and all will be well. You can be black, in your home, minding your own business, and still be killed. The case of Botham Jean grows stranger each day. The strange is watching law enforcement in Texas, in full view of the world, work overtime to cover up the murder of a young black male by a young white female officer. We are watching the creation of search warrants, arrest warrants, and character assassination in the media of the victim happen before our eyes. There is cause for concern within the black community when these things are being committed blatantly.
There is no hate for the police in protesting the extrajudicial killings of black people by the police. There is only a desire to live freely in the USA. Seriously, stop expecting people to take joy in being killed simply for being black. Black people are citizens of the USA and have the same rights as other citizens in the USA. Stop thinking black people condone criminal activity or will not call the police. I have called and will call again if necessary. I don’t take the law into my own hands. No one should take the law into his or her own hands. Allow the judicial process to work fully for all people in the USA.
Sue Harmon
Kosciusko, MS
