Dear Editor,
While I’m now reading the August issue of WestView, I did not read the July issue. That being said, I take issue with something the poet L’Oreal Snell wrote in her article, i.e. and e.g., “conservative whites dislike or even hate Obama because he is black, but: 1. Who doesn’t know this?”
I suppose I’m outing myself as a ‘conservative white’ here — I’m more of an independent, truth be told but that is not the reason I ‘dislike’ Mr. Obama. Mr. Obama is proud to be black, yes, but didn’t he have a white mother? Just asking. As for the “N” word, well, esteemed writers like Mark Twain and Joseph Conrad, to name two, wrote books containing that word in their own day, so it is a part of history. Or herstory, if you will.
Finally, I agree with something Katie Keith mentioned in her nicely-done letter to the ‘Briefly Noted’ column: “From a minister: “Book of Exodus chapter 22 verse 28 (or verse 27 in the New American Bible): (…) Do not speak evil of the ruler of the (NAB: your) people.” While I don’t like Mr. Obama and never did, I don’t, and try not to, disrespect him.
Sincerely,
John Early
Charles Street
