Letters on nonviolence, Clinton tweet, Trump’s hatred
Nonviolence is the way forward
In 1994, a young man in the congregation I served in Topeka was murdered. I did his funeral and attended the trial of the man who murdered him. I prayed about violence and it came to me that we needed to have a prayer service. Out of that service came the formation of the Safe Streets program in Topeka, which continues to provide citizen-empowered prevention in the city.
As we consider the murders in Dallas and around the nation, most of the discussions are around political moves that need to be made. I believe the issues are deeper than politics can touch. The issues are spiritual in their core.
Great transformational leaders recognize this, leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and William Wilberforce (whose spiritual passion led to the abolition of slavery in all the British colonies 60 years before the American Civil War).
Youths in Northern Ireland and Bosnia-Herzegovina founded a movement called Active Citizenship. The core values of this movement are nonviolence and mutual respect. The Safe Streets Wichita Youth Corps affirms these values as it works for good in our community.
Nonviolence is something all people can affirm within their own social systems: “I will be nonviolent in thought, word and deed.”
The thought world of nonviolence is the way forward in our day. Let’s join our youths in affirming nonviolence and mutual respect as core values in our community.
No blaming, no grandstanding, just determined action for good. Beginning now.
Dave Fulton, Wichita
Pastor, St. Paul’s Lutheran Church
Tactless tweet
Some 20 hours after white American police officers were purposefully targeted and gunned down in Dallas, Hillary Clinton tweeted: “White Americans need to do a better job of listening when African-Americans talk about the seen and unseen barriers you face every day.”
According to Clinton then, the onus is on white Americans to do the better job of listening if race relations are to improve. One wonders what she may think about how that should square with the Dallas killings, in which an act of absolute terror erupted from and out of a movement that stereotypes white cops in particular and all cops in general.
Voters understand Clinton’s need to garner 92 percent of the African-American vote if (like Barack Obama) she is to best ensure herself being elected president. But to do so with comments that exempt one segment of society from also doing a “better job of listening” is tactless and heavy-handed, and does nothing to redress racial divisions.
Ron A. Hoffman, Rose Hill
Fueling hatred
Not seeing the horror that Donald Trump represents will bring about our own destruction. Consider his derogatory remarks about the media’s reporting on his utilization of a Star of David, lifted from a neo-Nazi message board and placed within an attack on Hillary Clinton. As the Anti-Defamation League has indicated, the ad had obvious anti-Semitic implications.
Instead of demonstrating empathy for how others might be insulted and wounded by this image, Trump’s response was that of a pugilistic demagogue. It is this response that matters, as it fuels the hatred of many of his supporters, whose enemy list includes Hispanics, Muslims, African-Americans, Asians and, of course, Jews.
Trump wishes to ride rage and racism into the White House, disdaining all who stand in his way. He is so full of himself that he will set his thoughtless bullying against those in the United States and the world.
If elected, he will surely napalm any spirit of unity necessary for our diverse society, and America’s sense of moral greatness and positive uniqueness on the world stage will burn up in a fire of our own making.
Charles A. Gaynor, Bel Aire
Take country back
It’s time that Christians stand up and take our country back.
We cannot let that lying, crooked Hillary Clinton be president. She gets away with all kinds of lies, and yet she says Donald Trump is not fit to be president. It’s like the pot calling the kettle black.
She’s a disgrace to our nation. God forbid she becomes our president.
Come on, GOP. Get behind Trump. Let’s take our country back.
Marjorie Reicher, Haysville
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This story was originally published July 14, 2016 at 12:04 AM with the headline "Letters on nonviolence, Clinton tweet, Trump’s hatred."