MLK Prayer Breakfast slated

Perhaps the committee would consider inviting the author of one of this week's letters to the editor.

In his letter, the author, Doug Traubel, states, " Today, blacks in America born after 1965 know nothing about true racism. Eight-five percent of all violent interracial crime from year to year is black on white (DOJ Uniform Crime Report yearly average over a ten-year period 2000-2010)."

Traubel continues, "In fact, blacks in America enjoy many advantages not offered to the general population."

Traubel could be given an opportunity to let us know what "true racism" is.

http://www.mountainhomenews.com/story/1929497.html

I would hope that my views of "racism" mirror yours; it is an ageless sin. We are to love one another, but man (of every race) falls short . Just consider the Hutu and Tutsi for example. These are two tribes with markedly different physical features. The Tutsi are seen as foreigners and are killed on sight. The Rwanda Genocide of 1994 is an example of racism.

Don Imus in a moment of stupidity was not a racist. He made a rude comment meant to be funny. The man has a good heart and helps kids of all races suffering from illness on his special ranch with his own money. Hypersensitivity has taken away reason and grace. Imus caved, genuflected and kissed Jesse Jackson's ring for forgiveness. That is laughable given Jackson's record on race relations ("Hymietown" 1984). In America the definition of racism has become too elastic. The likes of Jessie Jackson, Al Sharpton, Carol Mosley Braun and Maxine Waters sling the term around fast and loose. This diminishes the suffering that occurred under the Jim Crow laws.

Rather than celebrate our growth and healing Sharpton and company stoke the fire of division for profit and power. Sharpton was so desperate for a soapbox of hate to stand on that he became impatient and invented one ─ the Tawana Brawley story (1987). Not to be out slung, Maxine Waters coined a nebulous term to grand stand on, "The vestiges of hate" ─ not readily visible proof of racism, but rather subtle and "institutionalized."

Sadly, from time to time there are true incidents like the dragging murder of James Byrd in Texas, but hoaxes and hype outnumber the true incidents of white-on-black racism in America. The Left forces the facts to fit the false narrative about the character of (white) America. Whites are charged with hates crimes 60% of the times and blacks only 20% of the time, but blacks are responsible for 85% of all violent interracial crime year- to- year; this does not compute.

I assure you the other flavors of hate are equally hurtful, foul tasting and more numerous but underreported, be it black-on-white (I.e. the Christian-Newsom murders in Knoxville Tenn.), black-on- Jew, Hispanic-on-black, Vietnamese-on- Filipino; the list is endless and can be read backward and be just as accurate; it is all equally sinful, but the coverage is spun for political gain and not balanced.

Incidentally, it was the Republican Party that spearheaded Civil Rights legislation. You will recall that democrats the likes of Al Gore Senior and Robert "KKK" Byrd stood in the way.

MLK would want us to love each other. I think he would agree that we were a great nation in spite of our warts. I fear that the New AmeriKa will take us backward as the Left divides and conquers. Our DOJ refuses to prosecute the black KKK known as the New Black Panther Party for voter intimidation. What message does this send?

In Ezekiel 34:1-6, the Bible addresses self-serving ―shepherds like Sharpton, Jackson and Obama's Reverend Wright, who dominate the flock and get fat feeding off of it. Chicago is awash in the blood of blacks murdered by other blacks, but we don't hear about this enough. It is a matter of selective outrage tied to an anti-American ideology not facts or justice. Blacks kill 93% of blacks murdered in the U.S. each year, but this truth runs counter to the false narrative.

"Racism" in this country is too often used as a shield from deserved criticism and a hammer to push back the critic. To consider that Michelle Obama took a lifetime to feel ─ for the first time ─ that she was proud of her country says a lot about the blinding influence of victimhood/social justice indoctrination.

When the prayer is said at the MLK breakfast on the 21st I hope it includes praise for how far America has come and for how God moves hearts to love each other as exemplified by the better parts of U.S. history. Warts and all this has always been the best place on earth.

I see nothing substantive to reply to specifically.

Over many years now the media have given Idaho a bad name by artfully using photography to make a small group of bonehead skinheads "marching" look like one hundred. That depiction is NOT the character of Idaho. Giving those knuckle draggers attention empowers them, sells papers and fuels the false narrative.

Idaho is a great state. We had the first Jewish governor and have you heard of Raul Labrador? Our values transcend the trivial points of division used by the Left.

Where did the lady's comment go that insulted our state and our character?

Thanks for taking the time to reply..

Could you clarify your interpretation on the conflict between Hutus and Tutsis?

I have worked with a Rwandan Tutsi and your interpretation is at odds with her reality.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_groups_in_Rwanda