To the editor:
What’s next? [Brack: Time to deal with the elephant in state’s room] Don’t get me started.
The flag was a symbol of centuries of race based systemic injustice in South Carolina. Now the real work begins. Since Charleston is being held up as a model for how a community comes together rather than comes apart, then we have to be the model for how to act on these ideals. Perhaps to begin, we have a series of community forums that are almost like truth and reconciliation committees — with police and city and community leaders — where people come and describe unjust encounters and experiences with police, courts, workplace, schools and housing. I know this would go a long way toward starting to heal. It works and leads to tangible change, and I could give countless examples. Accountability is critical, and forgiveness needs to happen in a broader forum. And some wounds can begin to heal.
Other thoughts:
Guns: To begin, I think Charleston should create a STAY AT HOME Day (the day after Thanksgiving). Everyone stays home and does not shop. The premise is that, since we are not safe in our churches, schools, movie theaters, cars etc., we stay home, where we feel safe. We should demand that gun laws change, and that gun manufactures and stores who sell to criminals are CLOSED. It’s a public safety issue. We ask our friends in Columbine and Aurora, Sandy Hook, Lafayette to participate. The only way to change the gun situation in this country is economic, since the gun lobby has more power than any U.S. citizen, including the president. IF Target and Walmart etc are affected financially, then the rest will follow.
Social services: The governor and state legislature has cut funding for social services across the board for years, and this hurts the poor and marginalized the most. This mind-set needs to be reversed so that the governor accepts federal Medicaid dollars.
Education: A statewide plan is needed to create equality in the classroom. Too many schools are segregated. Perhaps law students need to work the way they do on wrongful death penalty cases to create court cases around these issues? Why not?
These are all human rights issues. Looked at in this light, they should matter to all of us.
— Marjory Wentworth, Poet Laureate of South Carolina, Mount Pleasant, S.C.
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