Dear editor:
During an election the editor chose to write a very long letter in the paper last week while it lacked statements from school board candidates as they have done in the past.
When I read what appears to be generalizations, I felt it is best to rise above and investigate. Yes, ironic that a newspaper reader does the investigating. Prager U has a great video discussing if the national anthem is racist? It was written as a poem. The video mentions the MLK Selma march that when they arrived state house, they sang the national anthem.
What a racist statement the editor wrote: “Stop killing unarmed Black people!” A non-racist statement would be “Stop killing all unarmed people!”
The editor quotes 2010-2012 black males were more likely to be killed by police. I was irritated about 8 to 10 year old statistics though it was during Obama/Biden and I found a more recent “Cops killed nearly twice as many whites as blacks in 2015.” A majority of these victims were threatening the officer with potentially lethal force. Such as trying to grab the officer’s gun, or physically assaulting the officer, but they are listed as “unarmed.” The sad statistic is that a police officer is 18.5 times more likely to be killed by a black than a cop killing an unarmed black person. Blue lives matter.
The protests that were peaceful were able to draw attention to the improper procedure of allowing a knee on the neck and that officers need more training. They worked on a solution instead of claiming systemic racism. Sadly I don’t know if anyone learned the real prevention is complying with officer instructions.
What offended me the most is that the whole tone was what we face with protestors and many rioters. Our nation gives everyone the right to speak. But they fail to remember, our nation also gives the listeners the right to NOT listen. They do not have the right to yell in our face or use the annoying megaphone attempting to get us to “understand” or have their grievance be as important to me as it is to them. The only megaphone that should be in our town, is for the fire chief and law enforcement telling us to evacuate now because of a fire. They are the only ones that have the right to force me to listen.

Merrie VonSeggern
Idyllwild