We are a group of Anglo-American people (“white,” if you prefer). We write to express our concern and support for our sister and brother human beings who are African-American (more often called “black” by most in our society). We respectfully request all “whites” who are willing to also express your concern and support for these sister and brother human beings by joining or supporting the local chapter of NAACP where you live, or becoming a Big Brother/Sister, or a mentor, or a substitute grandparent to disadvantaged youths, or to march with peaceful protesters that seek full and complete justice where that does not now exist as it should.

We are appalled by:

1. The realities of racism that still exist 150 years after the Civil War.

2. The Supreme Court ruling that there is so little racism that the prosecutorial power of the Voting Rights Act can be so limited as to be nearly worthless.

3. The treatment received by too many African-American adult and youth men, since they are 21 more times likely to be stopped, or arrested, or beaten, or killed, or jailed than Anglo-American male adults and youths.

4. Police violence, which we condemn, and also violence toward police

5. The extent of the depressing, frustrating, anger-causing, and even rage-inducing day-to-day debilitating effects of people living in the ghettos of poverty, poor schools, lack of education, lack of jobs. We are ashamed that this reality still exists in this exceedingly wealthy country. While criminal actions must be prosecuted, nothing is gained by calling those who have participated in the “riots”, looting, arson, or destruction of property, “thugs”.

6. The truth of the words of Charles M. Blow, which most have ignored: “We can’t roundly condemn violent revolt now while ignoring the violent revolts that have littered this country’s history. We can’t rush to label violent protesters as ‘thugs’ while reserving judgment about the violence of police killings until a full investigation has been completed and all the facts are in. We can’t condemn explosions of frustration born of generations of marginalization and oppression while paying only passing glances to similar explosions of frustration over the inanity of a sports team’s victory or loss or a gathering for a pumpkin festival.”

7. The lack of government and private action that means some areas of cities have not been rebuilt all these years after the riots of the 1960s.

8. The realities that corporate welfare, including for sports teams (even though some of us strongly root for them), through tax breaks, tax cuts, and other incentives virtually never results in help, aid, or progress in the poorest city sections.

9. The media, because they seem more willing to show the troublemakers than they are the trouble preventers and the peacemakers.

10. The realities that while we spend billions on defense, and wars in other countries, and even to help rebuild what we have helped destroy there, we do not spend the money necessary to rebuild our cities, our roads and bridges, our water delivery systems, and the power grids necessary to meet the needs, and put many more people to long-term work by doing so.

The time has come and now is that the political will must be found to solve these problematic realities in the poorest sections of our cities. We directly and specifically say “must” because it should be obvious to everyone that there are no other options if we are serious in any way, shape, or form about achieving solutions.

We strongly suggest:

1. Public and private partnerships that specifically seek to rebuild the blighted and neglected areas of our cities; will offer significant job training and opportunities; will reform poor schools and strongly emphasize education that enables people to move out of poverty, along with monitors and mentors that will actually seek to help students graduate from whatever educational efforts are best suited for their capabilities, whether that leads to college or a technology or trade school.

2. A guaranteed annual income for disadvantaged and/or poor young adults tied to public service, or used as a supplement for internships for employment within any career or profession that is expected to be long term and usually pays an authentic living wage.

3. A new and strong emphasis on police sensitivity training that seeks to reduce police violence, while also connecting police more to the communities they serve.

4. A systematic approach to connecting police to youths in whatever programs can be devised and implemented, with a companion program that works at building trust between police and youth.

5. Developing and implementing programs that help fathers stay connected to families, and/or establishing male mentors within families that do not have such.

6. That the welfare system no longer penalize a family, by withholding necessary aid, for having an adult male in the house.

7. A systematic program of stopping drug trafficking in the city areas most blighted and economically disadvantaged so that the most “successful” people in those areas are not drug dealers, accompanied by a program that enables and empowers youths to resist drugs by demonstrating their personal and community destructive realities (perhaps using drug offenders currently in jail to speak the harsh truth of this reality).

8. That the mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenses be eliminated, and that there be no difference in sentencing for different “kinds” of the same drug, as there is now for powder or crack cocaine.

9. That drug addiction treatment centers be built, or current buildings rented, in the areas where those addictions are most prevalent.

10. That every means possible and worthy be used to reclaim our country’s city areas that are debilitated, impoverished, have poor schools, and limited employment opportunities.

We can no longer accept the way things are. We can no longer accept the racism that is the basis for the way things are. We can no longer accept that we live in this country divided “white” and “black” to the detriment of us all.

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This column was submitted by Teller County residents, including: Leota Alexander, Keith Dearborn, Brian and Wendy Dumas, Debbie Etherton, Chuck Harvell, Sheila Naviasky, Rodney Noel and Sharon Saunders, Evelyn Williams.