To the Editor:
Ron Harrison’s letter on Dec. 20 clearly shows lack of knowledge of the issues. The summer protests were against police brutality. It has been shown time and again that police overreacts to incidents which could have been otherwise handled by mental health professionals. Cities and towns are revamping their police budgets to include mental health professionals. You don’t have to go far, just look at the daily Village-News.com to see how many cases of police Investigations are really mental health problems.
Yes, there was looting and damage in some cities but look at the overall picture of about 50 million people participating in those protests. The results of protests show that there is a real change coming in Policing in America. As far as being racist, there is utter lack of knowledge of conditions on the ground. You can sit on your comfortable sofa and express opinions about the world but get out there and get to know someone who is living the life in a racist area and see how they deal with it.
Being in The Villages, you don’t see it, that does not mean it does not exist. Just go out to Wildwood and get to know a family or see what the children have and don’t have on a day to day basis. How is the education for the poor blacks and hispanics? How do they advance in society if the children don’t even get the opportunity for basic education. It takes generations to make changes in the lives of people who are disadvantaged. Just saying that you are not a racist is not enough. It is not enough to be nice to people of color who come and work in your home or serve you when you are local restaurants. See if you can make a change in their lives and do something about it.
This election is going to bring about the most profound change in America because people of color are being nominated for positions from where they are going to make dramatic changes in the lives of people of color or the lives American Indians. Just for example, Secretary Interior will be an American Indian woman. She will oversee a department that has been the butt of complaints by American Indians for decades. In summation, it is not that the media is gaslighting you, it is Fox News obsessive display of small incidents while ignoring the larger picture of the health of the society. When Colin Kaepernick took the knee, he was early in his recognition of police brutality. What we saw with the protests this summer was that he was right.
Ash Marwah
Village of Belvedere
