TO THE EDITOR:
I am offering a word for thought upon the current events in our country. With the possibility of danger from outside of our country, out there on what may be our future's horizon line, with the words from North Korea and the build up by China in the south Pacific, I think that I must relate my thoughts on the tensions running rampant within our own country.
First, racism is a negative thing, and has always shown a ugliness to the world. Regardless of where or when it has occurred, I know that it has always been ugly to look upon. I am quite sure that as humans have evolved down through the ages that they have carried racism along with them in one form or another for it has existed always. I think that from the moment the first Neanderthal looked upon the first Cro-Magnon that there has been racism in our species. We should have moved beyond it, but there are many reasons that we have not. Not one side, nor the other of this issue is free of some guilt in the continuance of racism. We are all guilty in a manner of speaking, some more than others yes, but we as a species, a people, have allowed it to remain, lingering there in the shadows.
There are many cases of it through the ages, anti-Semite, anti-negro, anti-Irish, anti-Indian etc. has all been issues here in our own home country where it plainly says in our constitution that "All Men Are Created Equal." C'mon folks, it is a time to recognize these things because a time may be coming where we will need to pull together as a country, to rely upon each other regardless of race, sexual preferences, or any other difference that there may be. We will need to become a strong community, together standing against a common enemy, for the enemy is doing much to break us. Do you not see that there are many Anti-American groups and individuals in the world that are now, and have been, trying to break us up into factions so that they may "Divide and Conquer" as the old saying goes. For if they can destroy our unity from the inside, then we as a country weaken and cannot stand against a common enemy. They know this, and we need to be reminded. There has been many efforts made to crack us along fault lines, such as religion, economics, and of course race and sex. We will be fools if we do not see this and begin to stand together instead of always finding reason to stand against each other.
These are my words for thought.
Ben S. Hammonds
Simms, Texas