I am writing in response to the two American privilege rebuttals to my letter of Sept. 26. Both letters deal with the past. My letter deals with the present and future.
When the late Rep. John Lewis spoke at Saint Anselm College in 2016, he said that “we have come a long way, but where do we go from here?”
Lewis was looking toward the future, not he past. If we go back 155 years or 400 years, as some would like us to do, we inflict a mantle of “white guilt” on white Americans, including our children. When you burden us with “white guilt,” you shift the “moral authority” to make a more perfect union of social justice to the far-left protesters we see in our cities.
If we accept that shift to the left, anarchy will ensue and no social justice for all can be achieved. It is a disservice to all Americans if we lay a guilt trip on us and our children for things that happened many years ago. We need to build on what we have achieved and work together as imperfect people trying to make a more perfect union of liberty and justice for all.
Our children need to know where we are going to achieve racial equality. I wake up every day to help MLK’s dream come true by empowering all Americans and not making them feel guilty for something they did not do.
JOSEPH MENDOLA
Warner