Editor:

You are dividing blacks against whites and you are making a living with it. Shame on you.

You are using your people for your own selfish purposes. We all have made big strides since Dr. King and still have to overcome many issues before we will have achieved understanding and love on both sides.

Look around. A half white and half black man is president of America and lives in the White House. Many black people manage important positions.

Take Dr. Ben Carson, a very intelligent, witty and kind man. He should be an example for you, Mr. Sharpton, and your type of hate mongers.

Dr. Carson would make a good president or vice president. I am, and many others, as the Constitution states, are for justice and liberty for all.

Slavery was very wrong. Nobody should be owned and stepped on.

Think back: Black slave traders started to sell slaves and the South embraced it.

Just because of differences of skin doesn’t make one better than the other. However, taking advantage of being black and whining about your disadvantages won’t earn you respect. Do something about it.

I have never encountered an older black person whom I didn’t like. They are God-loving and kind.

The younger generations are listening to you, Mr. Sharpton. Turn your hatred around and talk about contributing to the understanding of each other because there is more good than bad in all of us. If I were black, that is what I would do — help my people.

Good education is a key to better jobs. We need more respect for teachers and the law, not handcuffing them to do their jobs.

One a more humorous note to close my letter: The war was over when I was 11 years old. When I saw a black soldier for the first time, I ran to my mother and asked her, “Do you think he ate too much chocolate?” She explained to me as good as she could but I was fascinated.

Gisela M. Stearns

Idyllwild